Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Infection Control and Prevention Guideline for Healthcare Facilities

Abstract

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is an acute viral respiratory illness with high mortality caused by a new strain of betacoronavirus (MERS-CoV). Since the report of the first patient in Saudi Arabia in 2012, large-scale outbreaks through hospital-acquired infection and inter-hospital transmission have been reported. Most of the patients reported in South Korea were also infected in hospital settings. Therefore, to eliminate the spread of MERS-CoV, infection prevention and control measures should be implemented with rigor. The present guideline has been drafted on the basis of the experiences of infection control in the South Korean hospitals involved in the recent MERS outbreak and on domestic and international infection prevention and control guidelines. To ensure efficient MERS-CoV infection prevention and control, care should be taken to provide comprehensive infection control measures including contact control, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, disinfection, and environmental cleaning.

Surveillance of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (CoV) infection in healthcare workers after contact with confirmed MERS patients: incidence and risk factors of MERS-CoV seropositivity

“…In brief, if the HCW was a close contact with MERS patients without appropriate protection, the patient was placed under quarantine. If casual contact occurred, the patient was placed under contact surveillance [11]. HCWs who were quarantined were confined at home or in a quarantine facility for 14 days.…”

“…HCWs who were quarantined were confined at home or in a quarantine facility for 14 days. If respiratory symptoms or fever developed in quarantined HCWs, MERS-CoV PCR in respiratory specimen was performed twice in a 48-hour period, according to national guidelines, in each institution [11]. HCWs who were placed under contact surveillance were monitored daily for fever and respiratory symptoms for 14 days but were not prohibited from working in hospitals.…”

“…We defined aerosol-generating procedures (AGP) as follows: suction of airway, application of high-flow O 2 instrument, bronchoscopy, intubation and/or cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In cases in which AGP were performed, only PAPR, not an N95 respirator, was considered appropriate PPE [11].…”

Effects of environmental disinfection on the isolation of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus after a hospital-associated outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome

“…Low-level disinfectants including sodium hypochlorite, alcohol, and quaternary ammonium compounds are effective for MERS coronavirus. 6 After the cleaning process, rooms were disinfected by hydrogen peroxide vapor as previously described. 3,6,7 As 45 patients with MERS changed rooms and used 2-or 6-bed rooms as private, 5,8 a total of 86 rooms with 214 beds were disinfected, which represented 11.0% of the total 1,941 beds.…”

Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara

“…In this context, the government of the Republic of Korea began to implement intense case and contact management activities that in the end stopped the epidemic of MERS-CoV in a nonendemic region. However, the sudden and rapid spread of MERS-CoV in South Korea again highlighted the global risks of newly emerging pathogens that might unexpectedly threaten a naïve population ( Jeong-Sun et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2015).…”