SEOUL, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of South Koreans diagnosed with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) kept rising to 35 Thursday since the first patient was tested positive on May 20, the health ministry said.
Five new cases were reported as three people, who had contact with the patient zero, were confirmed positive for the deadly viral disease, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The three infectees were a 25-year-old female medical staff who treated the first patient for three days from May 15, and two men aged 47 and 54 each visiting the hospital where the patient zero was hospitalized for the three-day period.
The other two were infected from the 14th and 16th patients, who had contracted the corona virus from the first patient. The tertiary infection totaled five as the two new cases were added.
The two tertiary contagions included a male doctor in his 30s who contacted with the 14th patient on May 27. A 69-year-old man had contact with the 16th patient for three days from May 28.
Among the combined 35 infectees, 29 people were estimated to have been infected from the 68-year-old patient zero. Twenty-seven people caught the virus at the hospital, which the first patient visited secondly.
Among the five tertiary contagions, four were infected from the 16th patient alone. It indicated the first and 16th patients would be super-spreaders required to be quarantined more thoroughly.
All the infectees, excluding the first patient, caught the virus within hospitals. Seventeen were tested positive after being admitted to the same hospital with the patient zero for other diseases, with 12 people visiting the hospital for sick families or relatives. Five medical staffs were infected while treating patients.
Three infectees were preparing to leave hospitals as they completely recovered from the viral disease, Kwon Joon-wook, head of the central headquarters for MERS management, told a press briefing.
The number of those put under self or institutional quarantine totaled 1,667 Thursday, up 303 from the previous day. It included 1,503 people staying at home for the self-quarantine and 164 put under isolation in the government-designated medical institutions. Among them, 62 people were freed from the quarantine list.
Two people died of the viral disease Monday and Tuesday, sending the fatality rate to 5.7 percent. Thee infectees have been in serious conditions, raising fears for further deaths.
One more death has been reportedly found for the MERS infection, but Kwon said that the final confirmation had yet to be made by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The 83-year-old man was tested negative for the viral disease Tuesday, but he was confirmed positive Wednesday. The final test result had yet to come from the CDC.
He was hospitalized for chronic kidney failure at a hospital in Daejeon, a city in the center of South Korea. He was isolated from May 30 as the man shared a room with another MERS infectee.
A chief master sergeant in the Osan Air Base was reportedly confirmed positive for the MERS at the first test. But the final result also had yet to come from the CDC, Kwon said.
The South Korean soldier was admitted to a hospital in Gyeonggi Province for a wounded leg. After the discharge from the hospital, he was put under quarantine as infectees were treated at the hospital before.
About 60 soldiers in the air base, where South Korean and U.S. troops are stationed together, have been isolated as well.
The MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a new type of corona-virus that is similar to the one causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, with its fatality rate reaching 40.7 percent.
The first case was spotted in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The World Health Organization has reported more than 1,000 cases of MERS globally and more than 400 deaths.
