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

First of all, it was tested whether age is related to the susceptibility and mortality of MERS-CoV using z-test. The average age of MERS-CoV confirmed cases is 55 years and that of death patients is 69.8 years, while that of the total population in South Korea is 38.9 years in 2015. These differences were statistically significant and age is related both to susceptibility and mortality of MERS-CoV. Next, Chi-square test was conducted in order to investigate whether sex, region, and/or visited hospital had any relationship with mortality of MERS-CoV. The result shows that mortality was different by region and visited hospital, while it was not by sex. We also tested whether patients' sex was different by age, region, and/or category of patients (health workers, epidemiological survey, or visitor/family). According to the result, the sex of patients was not related to age and region, but it was significantly different by the category of patients. Finally, we investigated whether sex, region, and mortality are related to the number of cases by generation; in other words, it was investigated whether mortality increased or decreased as the disease spread further. The result of Chi-square test demonstrates that the number of cases by generation was not related to age while it was different by region and mortality (more details are given in Appendix).