Readings Two more MERS deaths in South Korea / The Sydney Morning Herald

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Two more MERS deaths in South Korea

Date

June 15, 2015 - 4:28PM

Seoul: South Korea has reported two more deaths and five new cases in the growing outbreak of MERS, which has placed more than 5,200 people under quarantine and sparked widespread alarm.

Face masks have become all-important in MERS-stricken South Korea, which on Sunday reported its 15th death from the disease. Photo: AFP

The latest deaths of two men - aged 58 and 61 - put the total number of fatalities from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome at 16 since the outbreak began less a month ago.

One victim had diabetes while the other had no underlying illness, the health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The total number of cases has risen to 150, with 17 patients in an unstable condition.

South Korean elementary school students wear masks as a precaution against the virus on Sunday. Photo: AP

The five new patients were infected in hospitals in cities including Seoul and Daejeon, 140 kilometres south of the capital.

Among them was a doctor who had performed CPR on an infected patient in Daejeon and one infected in Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul - the epicentre of the outbreak where more than 70 patients, visitors and medical staff have contracted the virus.

The outbreak is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, and started on May 20 when a 68-year-old man was diagnosed after returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia.

South Korean health workers wearing protective gear sanitise a public bus on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Since then the virus has spread at an unusually rapid pace, sparking alarm in Asia's fourth-largest economy. Almost all patients have been infected in hospital.

The Samsung hospital - one of the country's largest - suspended most services on Sunday to help curb the spread of the deadly virus.

There is no vaccine for MERS which has a mortality rate of 35 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation.

AFP