Abstract:

【Abstract】 The first imported Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) case in South Korea was confirmed on 20 May, 2015, followed by the largest MERS outbreak outside the Middle East area, with 186 confirmed cases including 36 fatal cases as of 26 July, 2015. Unlike transmission of imported case in other countries, the third generation coronavirus was detected in certain cases, does it show the signs of enhanced human to human transmission ability of MERS-CoV? In our opinion, this outbreak was mainly due to special hospital infection (infected patients’ attendance at more than one institution coupled with the courtesy of visiting relatives in hospital) and inefficient quarantine at the initial outbreak instead of human to human transmission ability of MERS-CoV being enhanced, for which we conclude that MERS-CoV still has the limited human to human transmission ability at present.

Key words: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS), MERS-CoV, Outbreak, Human to human transmission, South Korea