'MERS virus under control'

Sri Lankans safe in S. Korea:

by Naalir Jamaldeen

The South Korean Government announced on June 25 that the MERS virus, which has so far killed 29 and infected over 180 people in the country, is now under control.

Quoting South Korean authorities, the first Secretary of the Sri Lankan Embassy in South Korea, Theshantha Kumarasiri, told the Sunday Observer, the number of people quarantined following exposure to the virus had decreased over the past week.

"Peontac and Seoul were the areas which were mainly affected by MERS with most of the cases concentrated in Seoul," Kumarasiri said.

"No Sri Lankans were infected by the virus and we instructed the Sri Lankan community to be aware of the symptoms of MERS and avoid unnecessary travel through Facebook and by issuing handouts, we have over 9000 people on our online database," she added.

Analysing the response to the outbreak the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified a lack of awareness of the symptoms of MERS among medical professionals in South Korea as the key to its spread. The majority of MERS patients were medical staff including doctors, nurses, ambulance staff. A joint study by the WHO and the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare has recommended that greater awareness for medical staff, strengthening contact tracing, monitoring and quarantine as well as expanded laboratory testing will prevent the further spread of the virus.

In South Korea primary schools previously closed in response to the outbreak have reopened, high-schools, businesses and universities have continued to function as normal.