Fight against the virus of lies

House M.D. is a U.S. medical drama television series that ended in 2012. The protagonist, House, is famous for his line "Everybody lies." He said, "I don`t ask why patients lie, I just assume they all do."

When Patient No. 1, the first South Korean patient of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), was hospitalized at Pyeongtaek St. Mary`s Hospital for his condition, he did not tell his doctor the fact that he had travelled to Saudi Arabia, where the MERS outbreak started, saying that he had been to only Bahrain. Patient No. 16, who infected 22 others at various hospitals, including Konyang University Hospital, hid the fact that he had been hospitalized at Pyeongtaek St. Mary`s Hospital for fear of his surgery being rejected. Rumor has it that an irregularly employed paramedic at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul continued to work for nine days after he showed MERS symptoms because he feared that his pay would be cut. At normal times, patients who tell lies to doctors would suffer from their own lies. In the event of an epidemic outbreak, lying patients are a totally different story. Doctors are obliged to go as far as to "interrogate" suspected patients in order to find out the truth the way police officers do for public security.

In some other cases, hospitals that made mistakes attempted to lay the blame on their patients. Samsung Medical Center claimed that Patient No. 14, who started the second spread of MERS, had not informed it of the fact that he had been hospitalized at Pyeongtaek St. Mary`s Hospital. However, it belatedly turned out that the patient had submitted to Samsung Medical Center computed tomography (CT) images taken at the Pyeongtaek hospital. Regarding the infected paramedic, Samsung Medical Center claims that it had quarantined nine paramedics who were on duty when Patient No. 14 was in its intensive care unit and examined all of the 90 paramedics for possible infection but that the affected worker in question was omitted during the process. It is unclear which side is responsible for the omission. Samsung`s claims imply that the paramedic cleverly avoided being examined.

To tell the truth, patients are not the only ones who tell lies. Hospitals and quarantine officials are tempted to pass their responsibilities to others. Critics spread false concerns. "Truth begins in lies," Doctor House said. Lies are an invariable that has to be overcome. The fight against MERS is not just a struggle against viruses. The difficulties in this fight lie in that fact that we have to fight against lies, too.

pisong@donga.com