The startling speed at which MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) is spreading throughout Korea has caused 200 primary schools in the Gyeonggi area to shut down and over 1300 people to go into quarantine.

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On Thursday, five more people in the country were reported to be affected with the symptoms of the virus, which is similar to the flu (fever and coughing), bringing the total number of people infected in the country to 35. The death total is currently at 3.

The virus originated in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 and crossed international borders all the way over to Korea, having spread via a 68-year-old man--the first MERS case, also known as the index case--who returned to South Korea after a business trip to four Middle Eastern nations. After returning to Korea, the man was treated at two outpatient clinics and a hospital, causing the deadly virus to spread to various people including health care workers, other patients, family members, and visitors.

At the time of treatment, health care workers were unaware that the man was carrying the MERS virus, so they didn't take the rightful steps to isolate him. What's even more shocking is that the exposure of the secondarily affected patients to the index patient lasted as little as five minutes to a few hours, compounding the fatal effects of the virus. Now the disease is spreading to those that didn't even come in firsthand contact with the index patient, raising fears that infections will spread exponentially for anyone who tests positive.

Just what exactly is causing MERS to spread so fast in Korea despite it's highly advanced healthcare system? Peter Ben Embarek, a worker at the World Health Organization researching the disease, correlated the wildfire-like spread of MERS to the delay in infection control measures. There is also the culture of family members staying with patients in hospitals, which increases the likelihood of exposure.