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| People wear masks at Sindorim Station in Seoul, South Korea, 3 June 2015, as South Korea is gripped by increasing cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). YONHAP/ EPA |
by Maggie Fox, NBC News,
5 June 2015
Hundreds of schools across South Korea are closed, trains are being scrubbed and health officials are threatening to forcibly quarantine some people. The MERS virus is frightening, but is it time to worry? Here are some answers to your questions about MERS:
What is MERS?
MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus. You may remember having heard of it last year or the year before. It was first seen in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It's a coronavirus — a family of viruses that usually cause common colds and that can infect both animals and people. It's a relative of SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus that swept around the world, infecting more than 8,000 people globally and killing 774 before it was stopped in 2004.
How did MERS get to Korea?
One man appears to have carried the virus to Korea after traveling in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — all but Bahrain are countries where MERS has spread.
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