SEOUL, May 21 (UPI) -- A deadly virus that has plagued the Middle East was diagnosed among three South Korean patients.
Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Yang Byung-guk said Thursday a hospitalized 68-year-old man had infected his wife and a fellow patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, reported South Korean news agency Yonhap.
His wife, who was reported to be in stable condition, was nursing her husband when she fell ill. The fellow patient, a 76-year-old man, was lying in an adjacent bed when he was infected.
A total of 64 hospital staff and family members who came into contact with the patients have been quarantined, reported South Korean television network MBC. Public health personnel are monitoring their condition.
The first patient had returned from a trip to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
MERS was first reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, and has since spread to 23 countries. Of the 1,142 reported cases worldwide, 465 people have died from the disease.
Yonhap reported the disease has a fatality rate of 40.7 percent.
Symptoms include a fever, coughing, respiratory problems and sudden kidney failure. There is no known cure for the virus.
The Corona virus shares similarities with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, but it is also more deadly and less contagious. It has been reported to travel from camels to humans.
