Healthcare workers infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and infection control

The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV) infection in South Korea has become a public health threat. There are many confirmed cases of MERS in healthcare workers. Understanding the nature of the infection and the mechanismof transmission will be a useful lesson. This paper gathers data from the press records in KCDC from May 20thto June 26th 2015to identify the age, sex, occupation and etiologic exposure of exposed healthcare workersin order to come up with a response plan. By June 26th, 2015, there were 181 confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection in Korea. 36 (19.9%) of them were healthcare workers. These healthcare workers were exposed to MERS-CoV across 12 healthcare facilities, including Samsung Medical Center and Dae-Chung Hospital; threewere infected inside ambulances. Their occupational categories are as follows: 7 doctors (19.4%), 12 nurses (33.3%), 9 caregivers orgeriatric care assistants(25.0%), and 8 others (22.2%). These healthcare workers were infected by 12 super-spreaders. 30 of the workers(83.3%) were infected without being aware of their contact withMERS patients, while 6 (16.7%) were aware of this contact at the time of infection. The high number of confirmed cases of MERS-CoV inhealthcare workers is direct proof of the failure of crisis communication in South Korea, and the delay in the diagnosis of the index case was due to the lack of risk communication regardingthe threatof a MERS outbreak. Because the spread of MERS usually occursvia healthcare-associated transmission, infection control inhealthcare facilities must be strengthened. Key Words: Health care associated; Health care workers; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus;