South Korea Calls For More Checks At Major Airports Against MERS

To detect possible Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patients, South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn called for tighter monitoring.

"The number of South Koreans visiting the country is also expected to rise in line with religious events to be held in Saudi Arabia," Hwang said, urging tighter scanning of passengers for fever and other MERS symptoms at major airports.

Saudi Arabia Health Ministry Confirms Firty-Nine MERS Cases in One Week
Saudi Arabia has identified 1,147 infections of the deadly MERS virus, including 487 deaths, since the appearance of the disease in the country in 2012.

The MERS outbreak claimed 36 lives in South Korea earlier this year, the second largest infection outside Saudi Arabia, Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korea declared a de facto end to the MERS outbreak on July 28, about two months after its first case was reported on May 20.

MERS is a viral disease that is still fairly new to humans. No vaccine or treatment is currently available for the disease, which has a high fatality rate of around 36 percent globally.

Experimental Synthetic MERS Vaccine Fully Protects Monkeys from the Disease
The vaccine generated potentially protective antibodies in blood drawn from camels, the purported source of MERS transmission in the Middle East.

In South Korea, the fatality rate of the disease remains at 19.4 percent.

Source-IANS

South Korea Reports No New MERS Case for the Second Consecutive Day
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.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Claims Three More Lives in Saudi Arabia: Health Ministry
Seven new cases were reported from Riyadh, taking the total number of infections to 1,216 since the outbreak in Saudi Arabia in June 2012.