Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find what was the social responses and to identify the failure and weakness in 2015 MERS control in South Korea, and to suggest the strategy for emerging infectious diseases in the future. Method: The period of data collection was from May 21 2015, when MERS outbreak was reported on ‘H’ offline newspaper for the first time to July 31 2015, the day when South Korean government declared the eradication of MERS in the country. The total news items (NIs) collected for the analysis was 457. Result: There were 895 MERS NIs on the ‘H’ newspaper and 457 MERS NIs were adopted for this study. There were 462 MERS NIs on epidemiology of MERS, 250 MERS NIs on public health related. There were 428 MERS NIs related to central and local government. The NIs related to MOHW was 163 NIs. Other social and cultural issues including hazardous communication and hospital visiting attitude were reported in 270 MERS NIs. Conclusion: The philosophy and policy of the central government was the key to control emerging infection when the experiences in SARS compared to the MERS cases in Korea. The change of weather pattern was another key point in MERS outbreak in Korea. Also the crowded hospital environment because of relatives and friends visiting the patients was one of the causes of Korean MERS outbreak. Moreover, the public attitudes including hand washing, self-responsibility and corporation in isolation were also the points to control emerging respiratory infection. For the future in Korea, there have to be a paradigm change in governmental corporation and public like the Taiwan cases.
Highlights
After the introduction of penicillin at early 20C, people had begun to think and believe that infectious diseases could be eradicated
The philosophy and policy of the central government was the key to control emerging infection when the experiences in SARS compared to the MERS cases in Korea
The governmental philosophy and the control of emerging respiratory infection During the SARS pandemic 2001, South Korea showed an example of success for controlling the emerging respiratory infection; policy of the central government has opened to the public at reasonable time, and the active communication between government and mass media was the key of the success
Summary
After the introduction of penicillin at early 20C, people had begun to think and believe that infectious diseases could be eradicated. The belief had to be changed with the emerging of drug resistant micro-organism. We cannot eradicate infectious diseases, but only control them. In the battle over infectious diseases, we need to think of the ecological approaches. Infectious diseases had influenced and changed the society and the way of human life. Plague has changed the history of Western Europe [1], and the Spanish soldiers have been able to conquer the Meso and South America with the epidemic of smallpox [2]
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