Korea may see its first outbreak of swine flu after the new strain claimed more
than 100 lives in Mexico and other countries around the globe over the past two
weeks, said the country’s health authorities yesterday.
During the day, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised the
status of a 51-year-old Korean woman back from a trip to Mexico from “suspected”
of infection to “presumed” infected after close examination.
Patients placed under the presumed infection category test positive for type-A
influenza, the cause of influenza in pigs, but negative for any of the known
human variants of that virus - the H1 and H3 human subtypes.
Patients classified under “suspected infection” refer to a wider range: people
showing symptoms of the respiratory disease who have traveled to regions where
the outbreak has occurred or have contracted swine flu from infected humans or
animals.
Confirmation of an infection can be made after more laboratory tests , so final
diagnosis on the Korean woman might take up to two weeks, according to the
state-run agency.
Immediately after identifying a possible infection, the center, which is under
the Health Ministry, started investigating anyone who was on the same flight or
has shared her living space since she returned.
The center said she went to Morelos, Mexico via Los Angeles on April 17 and
returned to Korea on April 26, again via Los Angeles. She made a voluntary
report on her symptoms including fever, cough and runny nose after her return.
She has been placed in an isolation unit in a hospital and is showing “typical
symptoms” of the swine influenza virus, according to Lee Jong-ku, director of
the center.
Her travelling companion underwent an immediate medical check after she returned
yesterday via Incheon International Airport, according to the disease control
center.
Korean health authorities are currently tracking the passengers on the flight
from Los Angeles and anyone who went to church with her in Gyeonggi. The 40
people she lives with in an unidentified institution have taken the anti-viral
medicine Tamiflu, authorities said.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that more swine flu patients entered Korea
from Mexico and the United States,” said Lee. “But please remember that no case
of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, infection was confirmed in 2003
in Korea.”
He said the public has to take extra care with personal hygiene and report to
the nearest public health centers should anyone have swine flu symptoms less
than seven days after returning from overseas.
Yoo Young-hak, deputy prime minister of health, told the ruling Grand National
Party lawmakers at the National Assembly that the ministry will push ahead with
the production of vaccines for preventing outbreaks of pandemic influenza,
including the swine flu.
The country currently has no such vaccines and has relied on imports such as
Tamiflu.
Meanwhile, related ministry officials agreed to cooperate in securing extra
medicines and hospital isolation units to prepare in the event of additional
infections, following an emergency meeting yesterday presided by Kwon Tae-shin,
chief of staff at the Prime Minister’s Office.
These government measures came after the World Health Organization upgraded the
alert level to phase 4 overnight, indicating there is sustained human-to-human
transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country. It is the
first time that the level has been raised above phase 3 since bird flu in Asia
spread in 2003.
Phases 4 or 5 signal that the virus is increasingly adept at spreading among
humans, which would prompt governments to set restrictions on trade, travel and
more. Phase 6 means a full pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two
world regions.
In Mexico, the outbreak’s epicenter, the suspected number of deaths rose to 149
as of yesterday, with nearly 2,000 people believed to be infected.
