Mi Jeong Park
The first case was reported on May 20, 2015. The outbreak was traced back to a Korean man who returned from a trip to Bahrain via Qatar in early May and sought medical care at several hospitals before being diagnosed. But this patient did not initially report his travel to the Middle East, which significantly delayed the process identifying the source of the epidemic.
In Korea, a total of 26 first generation cases in a single hospital were traced back to a single index case (patient zero). In particular, #14 confirmed case occurred outbreak of SAMSUNG Medical Center, infected at least 90 cases. SAMSUNG Medical Center is one of the five largest hospitals located in Seoul with 3,980 healthcare professionals and more than 8,000 outpatient visits per day.
As a matter of fact, most of the people infected with MERS or who faced the risk of becoming infected with the disease appear to be those who stayed at the hospitals where patients of the disease were being housed. However, when the spread of the disease reached its peak in early June, a thousand or more schools and kindergartens were temporarily shut down, and a number of public events and festivals were cancelled. It was reported that the number of tourists visiting Korea decreased by 41% compared with the same time period of the previous year. During this time period, 16,752 people were ordered to stay in isolation within their own homes.
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Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medicine received 59 citations as per Google Scholar report
