25 October 2015•Update: 28 October 2015
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
The 152nd South Korean MERS case closed with a tragic outcome Sunday, as a 66-year-old man was confirmed to have passed away -- bringing the local death toll to 37 since the country’s first ever case in late May.
Having been diagnosed with MERS in June, the man subsequently tested negative for any trace of the flu-like illness.
But according to news agency Yonhap, officials said that he was never able to fully recover after undergoing a lung transplant.
The last MERS-related death in South Korea prior to this weekend was in mid-July, and the country had been bouncing back from the economic impact of having tourists scared away.
Seoul also faces an extended wait to be able to issue an official MERS-free declaration, because earlier this month another former patient drew headlines for testing positive.
The 35-year-old man had been cleared of the virus on Oct. 1.
In order to be considered free from MERS by the World Health Organization, South Korea must go through a four-week period without any ongoing cases.
Although the disease has been largely associated with nations in the Middle East, only Saudi Arabia has seen more infections than South Korea, where this summer’s outbreak was triggered by a man returning from a trip abroad.
The South’s MERS fatality rate now stands at close to 20 percent, which is still considerably lower than the global average of around 36 percent.
