CRI听力:S. Korea Reports Nine More Cases of MERS

South Korea's Ministry of Health says all nine of the new cases are directly tied to "patient zero."

All of the new cases have occurred in people who have been under quarantine.

They are among nearly 17-hundred people in South Korea who have been isolated amid fears they may have been exposed to MERS.

The virus showed up in South Korea on May 20th in a 68-year old man who had just returned from a business trip to the Middle East.

It has since taken four lives.

However, Kwon Jun-wook with the South Korean Health Ministry says both 'patient zero' and his wife have now both been released from hospital.

"The patient, who was the second confirmed case, left the hospital on June 5 after her condition improved. The PCR, or Polymerase Chain Reaction, test was conducted twice and all test results were negative."

Two more patients may also be released in the next few days following tests.

Kwon Jun-wook says they don't believe the virus has mutated from the original viral strain first identified in Saudi Arabia back in 2012.

"Gene sequencing of the MERS virus in South Korea is showing almost same as a virus in the Middle East region like Saudi Arabia. Thus, we confirmed there is no sign of genetic mutation in the virus."

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has also completed sequencing the genome of the first case of imported MERS in the country.

Chinese authorities, too, have also found no evidence to suggest the virus has mutated.

A viral mutation can sometimes make strains more virulent and harder to treat with conventional medications.

By testing and comparing the genome sequence of different strains of MERS, scientists can potentially find ways to prevent the spread of the virus.

However, at this point, no vaccines are available.

MERS is a corona virus similar to SARS.

It has a mortality rate of around 40-percent.

Data from the World Health Organisation shows close to 12-hundred cases have been identified around the world, with close to 450 people dying from it.

The World Health Organization is dispatching a team into South Korea this coming week to help assess the risks of MERS, along with assisting authorities in helping contain the spread of the virus.

For CRI, I'm Qian Shanming.