Culture, climate blamed for MERS spread - 메르스 확산 병문안문화와 날씨도 한 몫

  South Korea's relavtively mild climate and culture of family members caring for their beloved ones in hospitals have egged on the spread of Meddile East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS), experts said. Though health authorities have confirmed that the virus have not mutated to become airborne, officials and analysts floated a few factors which contribute to the spike in the number of patients.

  "In principle, Korea's weather conditions make it easier for the virus to survive than Saudi's," Song Dae-sub, a professor at Korea University's College of Pharmacy,told a news briefing hosted by the Health Monistry last week. "The virus gets weak if humidity rises. Even in a dry atmosphere, high temperaturs and direct sunlight have a negative impact on its survivability."

  Yet the government and other experts warned against linking the epidemic to the weather hastily, saying more evidence is needed. The hospital environment and culture of visiting patients in hospital have also been pointed to as crucial contributors. "I think that the climate has only a limited effect, if any, given that MERS has been proliferating only within the hospitals, ratrher than on a community basis," said Kim Woo-joo a Korea University internal medicine specialist and president of the Korean Society of Infectious Diswases. "It willl be safer to understand the spread as s result of the MERS patients" contact with many other people enclosed areas."

  At major Seoul hospitals such as the Samsung Medical Center, which became the biggest source of MERS patients, patiens race to make appointments with what they believe to be the best doctors in Korea, often having to wait for months until they receive surgery ot other treatments

 

  1) egg on : (특히 하지말아야 할 일을 하도록) 부추키다. 꼬드기다.  

             cf. He hit the other boy again and again as his foriends egged him on 

  2) mutate : 돌연변이가 되다. 돌연변이를 만들다.

  3) airborne : 비행중인, 공기로 운반되는, 하늘에 떠있는

  4) float : 떠다니다. (여기서는) suggest idea (계획, 생각을) 제시하다. cf.  They floated the idea of increased taxes on alcohol.

  5) spike : 못같이 뾰족한 것의 의미이나, 여기서는 (단수로) 급등, 급증을 의미한다.   

  6) epidemic : 유행성병 = pandemic

  7) hastily : 성급하게, 서둘러, 허둥지둥.

  8) proliferate : 급증하다, (빠르게)확산되다.  cf. Books and articles on the subject have proliferated over the last year.