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Post by Admin on Jun 26, 2015 20:25:24 GMT
South Korea has introduced a new law designed to curb a MERS outbreak, tightening quarantine restrictions and imposing jail sentences on those who defy anti-infection measures in a crisis that has now left 31 dead. Meanwhile, a South Korean man who had become China's only confirmed case has been cured and discharged Friday, the Health Ministry here said. Under the new law, passed in parliament late Thursday, people infected with the virus who lie to state investigators about how they came into contact with the disease will face a fine or a prison sentence. "False testimony would entail up two years in prison or 20 million won ($18,000) in fines," said the Health Ministry about the new law. It replaces the maximum two-million-won fine that could be meted out to anyone who did not tell the truth under previous legislation. "Interviewees will (now) feel compelled to provide honest answers," the ministry said in a press statement. The new law also strengthens officials' power to restrict the movement of infected people and close contaminated facilities, with offenders who refuse to follow their orders also facing two years in prison or a $18,000 fine. The number of state health workers in charge of preventing outbreaks and tracing them will also be doubled to more than 60.
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Post by Admin on Oct 19, 2015 19:49:51 GMT
A total of 61 people have been isolated after South Korea's last Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) patient, who had been recovering from the disease after being discharged on Oct 3, was rehospitalised and tested positive again for the virus. The quarantined individuals include the patient's family members, hospital patients and their guardians and medical professionals. However, the chance of them being infected by the virus from the infected patient is "very low," according to medical professionals and the government. "It seems like a very small amount of the virus particles that had been incubating inside the patient's body has been detected," said Dr Kim Ik Joong from the Seoul National University Hospital. Following the Health Ministry's announcement, a local news outlet accused the Samsung Medical Centre (SMC), where the patient contracted the disease while staying at its emergency facility in May, of not recognising the patient when he visited the hospital again on Sunday (Oct 11) after experiencing a high fever. According to the report, he was treated at the hospital's emergency room, instead of a quarantine facility, and may have exposed the virus to other patients in the room.
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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2015 19:55:44 GMT
A South Korean man died of complications from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Sunday, in the first death linked to the virus in the country for more than three months. The 66-year-old man was diagnosed in June after contracting the virus at the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul -- one of the major epicentres of the disease that swept the country between May and July, Seoul's health ministry said. He was later said to be cured of the disease but had been battling an acute lung ailment that was a complication resulting from the virus. Seoul had declared the outbreak effectively over at the end of July, but earlier this month a 35-year-old man believed to have been cured of the virus was rediagnosed. The diagnosis dealt a blow to South Korea's hopes of being declared free of the disease that has infected 186 people in the country, killing 36 of them, since its outbreak in May. The patient is currently under treatment along with four others who were officially cured from the virus but are suffering from various health setbacks caused by the disease.
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