MERS Responsibility

[Anchor Lead]

The court has issued a ruling that acknowledges for the first time the state's responsibility in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015. The ruling noted that the government's epidemiological investigation was lacking and its initial response came too late.

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A Mr. Lee in his 60s was infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome while hospitalized for an ankle injury three years ago. He was infected from patient No. 16 staying in the same room. Patient No. 16, in turn, got the virus from patient No. 1. Both patient No. 1 and 16 were super-spreaders, infecting 28 and 23 people, respectively. Mr. Lee, who recovered completely after a month, sued the state but the court's first ruling said that the state was not responsible. The appellate court saw it differently, however. The appeals court judges believed that the government could have fully blocked the course of infection. The court reasoned that public health authorities responded late to patient No. 1 At the time, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention refused to conduct tests, because Bahrain, the country patient No.1 had visited, was not categorized as a MERS-occurring country. Meanwhile, that patient had become a super-spreader. The court also stated that the hospital's epidemiological survey was shoddy, which eventually delayed the tracking of patient No. 16.

[Soundbite] Lee Yong-jae(Attorney for Plaintiff) : "The ruling is significant in that the court sounded a warning about how much effort must be put in to prevent the occurrence and spread of an infectious disease."

The court, which acknowledged the state's responsibility for the first time, ruled that Mr. Lee be compensated with 10 million won. This ruling is expected to leave considerable impact on other MERS-related lawsuits currently underway.