As #coronavirus patient numbers spike in Daegu, we talked to an infections disease specialist at the Korea National Medical Centre, Yeonjae Kim. He has some key messages for those around the world handling their own outbreaks....
Dr Kim Yeonjae: “In the past, with our experience with MERS, we would find the patient then quarantine the patient and locate all others the patient came in touch with. But now with numbers of patients so high, we found out in our country that this method does not work...”
Dr Kim: “We can’t quarantine and treat all patients. Those who have mild symptoms should stay home and get treated. We should change our end goal strategy to lower death rates. Other countries like Italy, that see huge numbers in patients, should also change their strategies too”
I asked him how staff were coping.
“Right now, medical staff are also resources that get consumed. Medical staff are getting very fatigued, so we are very worried about that. Also, the more medical staff we use, the risk of their exposure to the virus also increases a lot.”
“Right now, medical staff are also resources that get consumed. Medical staff are getting very fatigued, so we are very worried about that. Also, the more medical staff we use, the risk of their exposure to the virus also increases a lot.”
In South Korea around 80% of patients have mild symptoms. During a briefing by the National Medical Committee, doctors said that 56% of confirmed cases do NOT have fever.
