South Korean Authorities and World Health Organization to Conduct Joint MERS Probe

The World Health Organization and South Korea will conduct a joint investigation into the rapid spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome for five days starting from Tuesday.

South Korea’s health ministry on Monday said the joint team will comprise 16 experts, who will discuss epidemiological investigations into confirmed cases and infection control.

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The World Health Organization said it would send experts to South Korea for a joint mission with the government in collecting information of the MERS outbreak.

The team will visit hospitals where MERS infections were identified or quarantined patients are being kept and analyze the characteristics of the MERS corona virus in cooperation with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The joint investigation results will be released on Saturday, the ministry said.

The joint mission will be co-headed by Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general for health security, and Lee Jong-koo, head of JW LEE Center for Global Medicine under Seoul National University’s college of medicine.

As of Monday, MERS infections in South Korea surged to 87 as 23 new cases were identified and the toll reached six.

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About 70% of the total institutions closed are in the Gyeonggi province where most MERS-infected cases have been allegedly found.

Source-IANS

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