MERS Countermeasures as One of Global Health Security Agenda

Lee, Jong-Koo

After Korea inadvertently produced its first overseas MERS patient, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced to conduct a transparent investigation on the outbreak in a form of a Joint Mission from June 9 through 13, 2015. The investigation concluded that ROK was taking thorough countermeasures in tracking patients, isolation/quarantine, prevention, and limiting infected patients from traveling. Therefore, the Joint Mission recommended maintaining the status quo of efforts. The Director General convened the 9th meeting of International Health Regulation (IHR) Emergency Committee regarding MERS-CoV on June 17, 2015. Although neither a state of emergency nor travel limitation was recommended to be imposed upon the ROK, the "large and complex" was described in the following manner (3): 1. A lack of awareness of MERS among the health care workers and the general public; 2. Suboptimal infection prevention and control measures in the hospitals; 3. Close and prolonged contact of infected MERS patients in crowded emergency rooms and multi-bed rooms in hospitals; 4. The problematic practice of seeking care at multiple hospitals ("shopping for doctors"); 5. The custom of many visitors or family members staying with infected patients in the hospital rooms facilitating the secondary spread of infections. Hence how then, should Korea overcome this exigent health and security crisis spurred on by the sudden emergence of a new infectious disease? Korea needs to realign its mindset from that of "Infection Control" to one resembling a "Countermeasure of Bio-terrorism" which is a concept of "Model State Emergency Health Powers Act" after September 11 (4), 2001 USA and to bring forth a new paradigm of values such as "public goods" in order to repair the current public health vulnerabilities. The ROK must carefully formulate new comprehensive countermeasures of this new Global Health Security on Infection.