Winning war against MERS starts with winning psychological warfare

Now is the time to refrain from excessive responses following the mob psychology and to fight against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus based on scientific facts.

As the number of kindergartens and schools closed decreased to 2,431 on Friday from the previous day (2,704), many people raise their voice to take this as an opportunity to change strategies to tackle the deadly respiratory disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and medical experts say, “Schools have not been linked to transmission of (the virus) in the Republic of Korea or elsewhere, and MERS virus is not likely to circulate in the community.” Extreme measures such as closing schools may grow unnecessary fear in the society. Also, there are some negative side effects as the schools stop functioning, such as educating students on how to respond to onset of a contagious disease and checking their mental soundness.

Many people agree that schools need to reopen and take this as chances to enhance awareness on infectious diseases and heighten level of public health education. “We need to capitalize this occasion to teach the future generations how to respond to an outbreak, if it reoccurs in the future,” said Professor Jeon Byeong-ryeol of the Graduate School of Public Health at Yonsei University.

In the process to re-open schools, MERS quarantine strategies need to be changed. Although the number of infected cases is continuously increasing to exceed 100, there has been no "massive-scale contagion" or "tertiary source of infection." Many point out that existing measures need to be managed in more systematic ways, rather than developing new countermeasures, since the speed of infection started being slowed.

First priority goes to fast acquisition and sharing of patients’ information. It has been longer than three weeks since the first MERS case was confirmed, some people never say that they have been to the hospitals where MERS patients had been treated. Because of this, there are chances for virus to spread and concerns are growing over unexpected massive infection.

As inaccurate information is spread through SNS, the public must not be swayed by such rumors. While the number of MERS patients increases and local governments can perform inspection to confirm a MERS case, more various information is generated and shared compared to the initial stages. “Fighting against a contagious disease is like a psychological warfare. We must not be discouraged by unconfirmed rumors before having a good fight against the disease,” said Professor Jeon.

turtle@donga.com