China reported its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) yesterday — a 44-year-old South Korean man who had ignored his doctor's advice and had traveled to south China's Guangdong Province on business.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said the man had expressed discomfort as early as May 21 and reported a fever of 38.7 degrees Celsius on Monday. He landed in Hong Kong on Tuesday before heading for Huizhou in Guangdong via Shenzhen.
Health authorities said the man was placed in isolation and the World Health Organization notified on Wednesday.
CCTV said authorities in Guangdong had isolated 35 people who had come in close contact with the man, though none has yet to show symptoms.
South Korea's health ministry said the man, the son of a confirmed victim in the outbreak, was himself under observation for possible infection when he broke quarantine and left the country, Reuters reported.
"We should have checked more actively and broadly on family related issues. We are deeply sorry about that," Yang Byung-kook, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.
South Korean health authorities notified Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organization of his departure.
Yang told reporters that the man failed to notify health authorities of a visit to his father during the initial epidemiological survey.
The man saw a doctor on Monday about his fever, and the doctor had advised against the trip to China. But he had decided to ignore the recommendation, Yang said.
The doctor failed to report the suspected case to the health authorities until Wednesday, Yang added.
Passenger list forwarded
To prevent contagion, the man's wife and the medical workers who had come into contact with him were placed in isolation.
Health authorities are also investigating about 180 co-workers who had close or direct contact with him. A list of 28 passengers on the same flight bound for China and seated near him was forwarded to the Chinese authorities. On board the flight were 80 South Koreans, 78 foreigners and eight flight attendants.
Meanwhile, South Korea's tally of MERS patients rose to seven yesterday. The rise has stirred alarm in the country, with health authorities being criticized for not moving quickly and effectively enough to quarantine suspected patients.
The first patient was an unidentified 68-year-old male who had traveled to the Middle East before returning to South Korea on May 4. His wife became the second patient to contract the MERS virus.
The third was a 76-year-old man who shared a hospital room with the first patient, and his daughter became the fourth.
The doctor who examined the first patient earlier this month became the fifth case infected with the deadly viral disease.
The two new cases are a 71-year-old man who had been in the same hospital ward as the first patient and a 28-year-old female nurse who had treated the first patient, according to South Korean health authorities.
First identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012, MERS is considered a deadlier but less infectious cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and killed hundreds of people, mostly in China. Symptoms may range from flu-like aches and pains to pneumonia and kidney failure. There is no cure or vaccine and it has a 40.7 percent fatality rate.
Last week, South Korea's health ministry said there were 1,142 cases of MERS in 23 countries and 465 deaths had been reported by May 16. Of the total, 1,117 were in the Middle East.
