Lee Jacob, Kim Woo Joo
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Korea.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Infect Chemother. 2016 Jun;48(2):71-4. doi: 10.3947/ic.2016.48.2.71. Epub 2016 Jun 30.
On May 20th 2015, a 68 year old man was the first to be diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in Korea. He travelled to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar for 16 days. On May 4th 2015, the patient entered Korea, with febrile sense and respiratory symptoms that appeared on May 11th. The MERS-CoV Outbreak became worse and several patients had to be admitted throughout various hospitals starting at the beginning of June. This situation led to a nationwide chaos. The Rapid Response Team (RRT) was organized after the Korean government's calling for specialists that were composed of 15 Infectious disease Doctors and 2 Infection Control professionals on the 8th of June 2015. The main purpose of the RRT were: 1) consultation to the Government controlling MERS-CoV outbreak. 2) Visit hospitals that were exposed to MERS-CoV infected patients, and to provide advice regarding infection control strategy for rehabilitating of the exposed hospitals. Since June 8th, the RRT visited more than 10 hospitals and an effective consultation was carried out. Most of the hospitals were recovering from the MERS outbreak since early July. Cooperation between the government and private sector experts was very effective. The efforts of government and private sector experts overcame the initial chaos situation. It could prevent further deterioration of the MERS outbreak.
2015年5月20日，一名68岁男子成为韩国首例中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）确诊病例。他前往巴林、沙特阿拉伯和卡塔尔共16天。2015年5月4日，该患者进入韩国，5月11日出现发热感和呼吸道症状。从6月初开始，MERS-CoV疫情恶化，多家医院有多名患者需要入院治疗，这一情况导致了全国范围的混乱。2015年6月8日，在韩国政府召集专家后，成立了快速反应小组（RRT），该小组由15名传染病医生和2名感染控制专业人员组成。快速反应小组的主要目的是：1）向政府提供控制MERS-CoV疫情的咨询。2）走访接触过MERS-CoV感染患者的医院，并就受影响医院的感染控制恢复策略提供建议。自6月8日以来，快速反应小组走访了10多家医院，并进行了有效的咨询。自7月初以来，大多数医院的MERS疫情都在好转。政府和私营部门专家之间的合作非常有效。政府和私营部门专家的努力克服了最初的混乱局面，防止了MERS疫情的进一步恶化。
