The Impact of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak on Trends in Emergency Department Utilization Patterns

Paek, So Hyun; Kim, Do Kyun; Lee, Jin Hee; Kwak, Young Ho

After the MERS period, ED volumes recovered very quickly. However, compared to the H1N1 outbreak, there was a difference. One study showed that during the H1N1 outbreak, ED visits for influenza-like illness peaked quickly in the first week of the outbreak and remained high for approximately 6 weeks (6). The reason why ED visits recovered so quickly was that the Korean government declared that the MERS outbreak had ended on July 28th and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that MERS was no longer likely to spread in Korea (26, 27) . When there were no newly reported infected patients, the anxiety about the MERS infection significantly decreased and patients visited the ED regularly as before. Also, our hospital had no infected MERS patients, so when the end of MERS was declared, ED visits resumed normal. It is possible that other EDs may not recovered as quickly. The results are limited to the interpretation as a result of a single hospital study. Therefore, it is necessary to study the number of patient visits to the ED after MERS in various local hospitals.