Czech Tour Guide Who Spent a Week In South Korea Hospitalized With Suspected MERS

A Czech tour guide suspected of having the fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has been hospitalized in Prague.

"He spent about a week in South Korea and returned to the Czech Republic on May 29," said Svatopluk Nemecek.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) - Causes Symptoms Treatment Prevention
MERS, a newly discovered respiratory disease, was recently reported in the Arabian region. MERS is caused by a virus similar to that causing common cold and other respiratory illnesses.

"On July 2 he went on a coach trip as a guide and got sick," Nemecek said, adding that the man was taken to a specialized Prague hospital with a fever after a medical check.

He said the results of lab tests on the patient would be available at about 1400 GMT on July 3.

In its latest outbreak, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has killed 33 people of 184 diagnosed with the virus in South Korea.

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The three new MERS infections came a day after South Korea reported no new cases, raising guarded hope that Seoul was winning the battle to contain the virus.

In Europe, the virus killed a 65-year-old German man in June who contracted MERS during a trip to Abu Dhabi.

Nemecek added that about 30 people who were on the bus with the guide were put in quarantine.

MERS Cases Rise to 181, Death Total Rises to 31: South Korean Health Ministry
The South Korean health ministry reported 181 cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and two deaths due to the virus, escalating the toll to 31.

Globally, some 1,300 people have been infected with MERS -- mostly in Saudi Arabia -- and more than 400 have died since the virus first emerged in 2012, having spread to 26 countries.

MERS is considered a deadlier cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which appeared in 2003 and killed more than 800 people around the world.

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The MERS virus, for which there is no vaccine, has spread at an unusually rapid pace in South Korea, becoming the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.

Source-AFP