Mers Affects Another Doctor At Elite Skorea Hospital

A prestigious Seoul hospital run by local business powerhouse Samsung is being held responsible for yet another MERS case, as South Korea's official number of infections rose to 185 Saturday.



A Samsung Medical Center doctor was confirmed to have contracted the deadly flu-like illness by the health ministry -- the facility has been linked to around half of the country's cases.



South Korea had never experienced a single MERS infection before May, and the speed at which the virus initially swept through dozens of hospitals nationwide provoked such public panic that the Bank of Korea lowered its key interest rate in June to revive the local economy.



Since then the government has drawn up plans to financially support hard-hit industries such as local tourism, but the heaviest cost of the outbreak has been the death toll of 33 so far.



Samsung Medical Center was the first South Korean facility to recognize MERS, an illness that had been primarily restricted to the Middle East since 2012 - with a fatality rate exceeding 40 percent in Saudi Arabia.



But Samsung's operations have been greatly restricted since last month after it failed to restrict exposure to infected patients.



13 medical personnel from the hospital have fallen ill during the course of the outbreak, including two nurses last week and the doctor confirmed Saturday.



In response, almost all of the hospital's MERS patients have been transferred to state-run facilities -- just three remained as of Saturday.



The World Health Organization has said that around a month needs to pass after the last infection for South Korea to be declared free of the virus. - Seoul-t'ukpyolsi