Authors : Sang-Sub Park and Yoon-Ho Lee
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the need to change the roles of the emergency medical service system in the national response system due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) crisis in the Republic of Korea in 2015. For this purpose, the data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were used. The data released from the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) supervising disasters at the national level were used. The MERS outbreak duration in the Republic of Korea ranged from May 20 to December 23, 2015. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 12.0 Version. During this duration, 186 persons were officially diagnosed with MERS. Super-spreaders #1, 14-16 and 76 infected 154 (82.7%) out of 186 deaths. Of these, #14 infected 85 (55.2%) patients. The 52.6% of the infections by the 5 super-spreaders occurred in “emergency room”. The period between after diagnosis and death was 16.78 days on average. The period between after diagnosis and discharge was 20.06 days on average. On the basis of these results, there is a need for the emergency medical service system in the national response system to play an efficient role.
Sang-Sub Park and Yoon-Ho Lee, 2017. The Need to Change the Roles of the Emergency Medical Service System in the National Response System Due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Crisis in the Republic of Korea in 2015. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 8560-8564.