Inevitably there is much sympathy here in the Kingdom for the emerging Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus crisis in South Korea and it seems now, with cases reported in Hong Kong and China, further afield. By yesterday, the number of reported cases of infection in South Korea had passed 122. Ten people have so far died and 3,250 people are in quarantine. As has been the case in Saudi Arabia, the most vulnerable victims are elderly patients with other health problems. Sadly it seems that the source of the Asian outbreak was a Korean businessman who had traveled to the Middle East. So far, since MERS was first identified, worldwide, there have been more some 1,200 confirmed cases, of which around 450 have ended with the death of the victim. The majority of these cases have been in the Kingdom. The South Korean government has reacted with considerable speed. The Central Bank has actually cut its interest rate in the belief that it will help businesses overcome an expected economic downturn. South Korea is still recovering from recession and a setback for the economy at this time could prove serious. Those who might be tempted to think that the authorities in Seoul are overreacting are forgetting Asia's traumatic experience with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003. In that outbreak more than 8,000 Koreans were infected and 774 died. The global economic impact, caused as much by the fear of SARs as by the disease itself, was estimated at a loss of $30 billion. The evidence is mounting that the same fear has now been driving a rapid economic retreat. MERS was first confirmed in South Korea on May 20. Department store sales fell 16.5 percent in the first week of this month. More than 54,000 tourists have already cancelled holiday trips. Employees are staying away from their workplaces and the sale of face masks has burgeoned. Virtually everyone in the country is wearing one. The Kingdom will of course have offered any assistance that the South Korean government requires. The response of the Saudi health authorities was many faceted and robust. As much as anything, the key measure that was taken was the introduction of a widespread publicity campaign. This highly-detailed program gave clear instructions on the symptoms to watch for and just as importantly how people should go immediately to a medical practitioner, if they had the slightest suspicion that they had become infected. By the same token, great care was taken to record the contacts that infected people had made. Similar rigorous data collection is now being undertaken in South Korea. The overarching message of the Saudi campaign was that there should be no panic. When MERS was first identified in 2012, there was understandable anxiety among Saudis and those who work here. Fear of the unknown is natural. But what marked the general reaction after the original shock, was a sense of calm. There was no rush to move away from areas where the infection had been confirmed, no urge to leave the country. Not only that, the authorities mounted masterful Haj campaigns in which careful monitoring of the state of health of pilgrims ensured that the MERS contagion did not spread beyond the Kingdom. Moreover, there was no serious economic dip nor did the financial authorities have to intervene to support the economy.
