© Korean Medical Association. The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV) infection in South Korea has become a public health threat. There are many confirmed cases of MERS in healthcare workers. Understanding the nature of the infection and the mechanismof transmission will be a useful lesson. This paper gathers data from the press records in KCDC from May 20thto June 26th 2015to identify the age, sex, occupation and etiologic exposure of exposed healthcare workersin order to come up with a response plan. By June 26th, 2015, there were 181 confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection in Korea. 36 (19.9%) of them were healthcare workers. These healthcare workers were exposed to MERS-CoV across 12 healthcare facilities, including Samsung Medical Center and Dae-Chung Hospital; threewere infected inside ambulances. Their occupational categories are as follows: 7 doctors (19.4%), 12 nurses (33.3%), 9 caregivers orgeriatric care assistants(25.0%), and 8 others (22.2%). These healthcare workers were infected by 12 super-spreaders. 30 of the workers(83.3%) were infected without being aware of their contact with MERS patients, while 6 (16.7%) were aware of this contact at the time of infection. The high number of confirmed cases of MERS-CoV in healthcare workers is direct proof of the failure of crisis communication in South Korea, and the delay in the diagnosis of the index case was due to the lack of risk communication regarding the threat of a MERS outbreak. Because the spread of MERS usually occurs via healthcare-associated transmission, infection control inealthcare facilities must be strengthened.
year ⏰ 2015
issn 🗄 19758456
volume 58
number 7
page 647-654
citedbycount 9
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