CRI听力:Saudi Arabia Experts in S. Korea on Talks of MERS

A group of medical experts from Saudi Arabia have arrived in South Korea to share their research connected to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

The MERS virus was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Doctor Ali al-Barrak is with a military hospital in Saudi Arabia which has dealt with the virus.

He says the spread of the virus can be contained.

"In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we have faced this disease over the last three years. And last year, it was a big outbreak that happened in between cities. And with the good efforts that was done on infection control and also on case detection things has improved. And with this year we had much less cases."

The outbreak in South Korea is the largest outside Saudi Arabia.

The MERS outbreak in South Korea has so-far claimed 11 lives.

126 people have been infected with the virus since it was first confirmed in the country on May 20th.

Close to 37-hundred people are now under quarantine.

At the same time, Chinese air-travel regulators have issued a new decree, demanding tighter disinfections of all flights coming in from South Korea.

China's only confirmed case of MERS is a South Korean national who broke quarantine and traveled to China.

He's said to be in stable condition.

All 75 people who had close contact with the patient in Guangdong have been cleared.

MERS, a corona virus similar to SARS, has a mortality rate of around 40-percent.

No cure or vaccines are available at the moment.