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South Korea Tracks Mobile Phones Over MERS Outbreak

Posted by Soulskill on from the adapting-to-the-new-normal dept.

An anonymous reader tips news that South Korea has stepped up its efforts to fight an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after the number of known cases keeps increasing rapidly. World health officials are not recommending general travel restrictions, but members of the public are being advised not to do so. Nearly 2,000 schools have been closed, and 2,300 people are in quarantine. The South Korean government is also taking the unusual step of using mobile phones to track which citizens may have been in contact with confirmed MERS patients. The outbreak in South Korea has been traced back to a man who went to multiple medical centers in mid-May seeking treatment for his symptoms. The government is apologizing for its slow response to the situation, and hoping the economic damage won't be too bad.

2 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. hoping the economic damage won't be too bad. by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about hoping the human toll won't be too bad.

    1. Re:hoping the economic damage won't be too bad. by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Due to people there being less mobile and the gov't having police state-like control over the population, an outbreak in N. Korea will likely be at least as well-contained as in western nations or better.

      Anyways if you wanted to kill N. Koreans by intentionally introducing a virus there (germ warfare), MERS is pretty silly. There are tons of more effective biological agents than that.