South Korea earned the unwanted title of the country with the world’s second most Middle East respiratory syndrome cases as the number of confirmed patients reached 87 as of Monday morning, including the first case of a teenager. South Korea follows Saudi Arabia with 1,026 and is tailed by United Arab Emirates with 84.

Since the first outbreak on May 20, the number of confirmed patients rapidly surged at two hospitals including St. Mary’s Hospital in Pyeongtaek and Samsung Medical Center.

Outside the Middle East, South Korea has the largest number of confirmed MERS patients, with other countries in Asia, Europe and the U.S. seeing one to four cases on average.

Experts have attributed this to the poor preliminary countermeasures and unique hospital culture where close contacts between patients and visitors are not restricted.


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com