S Korean hospital at centre of Mers outbreak suspends most services

[EndoftheWorld]

S Korean hospital at centre of Mers outbreak suspends most services

PUBLISHED : Monday, 15 June, 2015, 1:47am
UPDATED : Monday, 15 June, 2015, 1:47am

Reuters in Seoul

Hospital president Song Jae-hoon apologises. Photo: AFP

A South Korean hospital suspended most services yesterday after being identified as the epicentre of the spread of a deadly respiratory disease that has killed 15 people since being diagnosed in the country nearly four weeks ago.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow on South Korea's "large and complex" outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), the biggest outside Saudi Arabia, where it was first identified in humans in 2012.

Mers was diagnosed in South Korea on May 20 in a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East and has spread through hospitals.

South Korea's health ministry reported seven new cases yesterday, taking the national total to 145, as a 15th person died, a Busan city official said. The people who died were all elderly or people with existing ailments.

The Samsung Medical Centre, a prominent hospital in the capital Seoul, said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients to focus on stopping Mers after more than 70 cases were traced to it.

Its tally - almost half the national total - has surpassed the number at a Pyeongtaek hospital, where the first patient sought treatment.

Among Samsung Medical Centre cases was an emergency ward orderly who worked for days after developing symptoms, coming into contact with more than 200 people, the hospital said.

"We apologise for causing great concern as Samsung Medical Centre became the centre of the spread of Mers," the hospital's president, Song Jae-hoon, said. "This is entirely our responsibility and failing as we did not properly manage emergency-room staff."

The orderly is believed to have picked up the virus from an infected person who waited three days in different parts of the emergency ward, with nearly 900 staff, patients and visitors coming and going during that period.

All of South Korea's cases are believed to be linked to hospitals or related services and have been traced back to the businessman who returned from the Middle East.