A South Korean man, who had been treated at a Chinese hospital after being diagnosed with the MERS virus late last month, has recovered and been released from the hospital, an official at the South Korean Embassy here said Friday.
Defying the advice of doctors to stay at home, the 44-year-old Korean man flew to Hong Kong on May 26, a day after his father was diagnosed with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus in South Korea and subsequently went to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong by bus.
He was confirmed to be infected with the virus on May 29 and had been treated under quarantine at Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital in Guangdong.
"The patient was discharged from the hospital on June 26 after testing negative for the virus three times," the embassy official said on the condition of anonymity.
Since South Korea reported its first MERS case on May 20, a total of 181 people have been infected with the virus and 31 people have died from it, according to South Korea's Health Ministry on Friday. Most of the deceased had severe ailments before being infected with MERS.
MERS is a viral respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to the World Health Organization. (Yonhap)
