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South Korea confirmed the first case of respiratory syndrome in the Middle East in three years and quarantined 22 people who had close contact with a patient.
A 61 year old man was diagnosed with MERS on Saturday after returning from his business trip to Kuwait. According to the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 22 people are sentenced to quarantine or to quarantine facilities where quarantining is not possible.
In 2015, South Korea saw 38 people die in a massive MERS epidemic. More than 16,000 people have been quarantined or isolated for care or treatment.
According to the World Health Organization, the MERS, known as the camel flu, is an infectious respiratory disease triggered in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and likely to cause major epidemics. Patients have symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath. Travelers from the Middle East are asked to report any symptoms of MERS when they enter South Korea.
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Quarantined persons are flight attendants, passengers seated nearby, a taxi driver and an assistant who assisted the patient in a wheelchair. They were classified as "close contacts", defined as having contacted the patient at about six feet (two meters).
A 24-year-old British woman, who was on the same plane as the patient, presented MERS symptoms but was tested on Monday during a preliminary test.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said that 10 close contacts were living in Seoul and that a total of 172 residents had moderately contacted the patient so far. They were closely monitored by state health authorities, he added.
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According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the patient's South Korean colleagues in Kuwait have been tested for MERS. One of them had MERS symptoms but was revealed negative on Monday.
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