Silent War to Emerging or Re-emerging Respiratory Infection Diseases Badly Kept in Mind

Zheng, Ya-Li; Gao, Zhan-Cheng

Recently, a man aged 44 years from South Korea who flew to Hong Kong on May 26, subsequently traveled to Huizhou, Guangdong Province, had drawn the worldwide attention. First laboratory-confirmed case of middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS) finally landed in China, 3 years after the first identification of MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia, 2012. [1] In reality actually, MERS did not attract much attention in China till now although we had alerted about the possibility of its importation, or even pandemic. [2] A similar phenomenon has happened in South Korea, lacking of awareness among health care workers and the general public, contributing to suboptimal infection prevention and control measures in health facilities, and finally cause the outbreak of MERS in South Korea and the exported case to China. Fortunately, we have won out in the battle, and no additional cases have been identified among close contacts in China (n = 75). Meanwhile, we still have lingering fears as there are sporadic infections and outbreaks all over the world.