The Characteristics of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Transmission Dynamics in South Korea

Kim, Yunhwan; Lee, Sunmi; Chu, Chaeshin; Choe, Seoyun; Hong, Saeme; Shin, Youngseo

One of the most significant events in South Korea in 2015 was the introduction and diffusion of Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). It is a novel coronavirus which was first identified in Saudi Arabia in September 2012 [1] . After that, MERS-CoV exhibited outbreaks in several regions and the last one was in South Korea (at the time of writing). It is known as having a high fatality rate and having a resemblance in clinical features with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [2] , thus, it has drawn much concern both from the public health authority and the general public when the first index case was identified in May 2015, for the first time in Korea. In the case of the outbreak in South Korea, it is characteristic in that a single importation of the pathogen sparked a large cluster of infected cases, while sporadic importations did not lead to local outbreaks in other regions [3] . It was surprising because South Korea has been said to have one of the most advanced medical and public health systems in the world [4] , and it raises fears that the situation would be much worse in countries with less developed public health systems. Thus, the investigation of this study about the South Korean incidence is expected to give an invaluable lesson both to public health authorities around the world and the community of epidemiology researchers. Moreover, it might be able to provide a quantified result with mathematical modeling and statistical analysis, which is beneficial given that the studies about the South Korean case are largely comprised of epidemiological descriptions [4, 5] .