South Korea Will Improve Its Quarantine Facilities by Setting Up a System Dedicated to Monitoring And Response
Yonhap News reported on Tuesday that South Korea is set to establish a system devoted to monitoring and response in the country's quarantine facilities to be able to successfully manage contagious health diseases that enter their territory.
The strategy brought up in the national policy coordination meeting addresses the concern in South Korea's ability to immediately attend to emergencies concerning the citizens' health, as proven substandard with the recent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak.
ABC News noted on June 13 that Mr. Fukuda from the World Health Organization (WHO) has commented that "Infection prevention and control measures were not optimal" in other hospitals, with packed emergency rooms as evidence. This, in turn, has resulted to sharing of beds by patients consequently putting them at risk of contracting the virus.
The first MERS case in South Korea was confirmed on May 20 and the disease rapidly spread, causing the death of 36 people. In total, 186 individuals were hit by the virus, wherein the last reported case of MERS was on July 4.
"The lack of knowledge, medical experts and training prevented health authorities from containing MERS in the early stages," explains Health Minister Chung Chin Youb. He gives the people assurance that the government will investigate on where they lack in terms of monitoring and response in order to come up with a better quarantine system.
These improvements include having an Emergency Operations Center that operates 24 hours in order to identify suspected individuals with contagious disease and be prepared to send out medical experts and quarantine officials where an outbreak is possibly located.
The government also plans to set a specialized risk communication office to ensure an accurate and timely dissemination of information to the people in South Korea, most especially medical institutions and workplaces with health agencies.
As another aspect of the monitoring and response strategy, the country's capital plans to designate a vice minister official to facilitate the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) who will allow the organization to efficiently respond to emergency situations.
Funds will also be allotted for negative pressure isolation rooms that can accommodate 1,500 patients by 2025 and all general hospitals equipped with more than 300 beds will be obligated to have their own negative pressure isolation rooms.