NIH Director Says, “SARS in Korea is a Matter of Time”

Director of NIH (the National Institute of Health), Moon-Shik Kim, clarified on April 2 that “the occurrence of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) victim in Korea is a matter of time.”

“People coming in from the dangerous regions of Guangdong Province of China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi are about 3,000 people per day. Among these, there definitely will be carriers of the SARS, thus no matter how well the inspections are executed, victims will appear in Korea in a couple of days”, stated Director Kim at the press conference.

“As of now, the death rate of the SARS is about 3.5%, which is similar as the death rate of influenza. When the victims occur in Korea, the patients and their contacts will be asked to stay in the houses and if they don`t comply, they will be forcefully isolated”, he clarified. Director Kim explained that in case of the spread of the SARS, they are examining plans of prohibiting the arrivals of the airplanes coming in from such countries as well as cutting off the nation`s commoners going out to those countries. The NIH clarified that the World Health Organization (WHO) understands that the pathogenic organ of the SARS might be a new formation of Corona Virus, which is a type of a cold virus, and mainly the families and the medical personnel who have close contacts with the patients get affected. “WHO sees the possibility of the aerial infection to be very low.

Generally, viruses can`t survive over two hours in the air thus there is a low possibility of SARS coming in with the yellow sand dust”, stated Director Kim. “The SARS can be infected through the direct contacts with the spit and the secretion of the victim or through respiratory organ thus the strict personal sanitations such as tooth brushing and hand washing are the best precautions”, emphasized NIH.

Jin Lee leej@donga.com