Impact of Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak on the use of emergency medical resources in febrile patients

Jeong, Hyunho; Jeong, Sikyoung; Oh, Juseok; Woo, Seon Hee; So, Byung Hak; Wee, Jeong Hee; Kim, Ji Hoon; Im, Ji Yong; Choi, Seung Pill; Park, Kyoungnam; Cho, Byul Nim Hee; Hong, Sungyoup

To estimate the effects of the outbreak of MERS on the use of emergency resources, the total number and relative proportion of febrile patients attending the ED after the outbreak of MERS were compared with the data from equivalent periods during the three years preceding the outbreak. The one sample t-test was used for comparisons involving total numbers of febrile patients attending emergency medical centers. The analysis of variance test was used for comparisons involving the relative proportion of febrile patients attending each hospital. A total of 17,662 patients used selected emergency medical centers during the study period, after the MERS outbreak. This was greater than the average number of patients during the preceding three years (P = 0.03) Fever of unknown origin C0035021