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| Kim Eun-mi, right, who has recovered from MERS, speaks during a forum marking the one-year anniversary of the outbreak at the YWCA office in Seoul, Friday. Byun Keum-sun, another survivor of the disease, is sitting next to her. / Yonhap |
Gov't urged to invest more to strengthen health security
By Jung Min-ho
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak was believed to have caused 30 trillion won ($25 billion) in social costs. What if the country had invested the money in advance to prevent such an infectious disease?
This question is still important because the nation remains ill-prepared to cope with epidemics.
Health experts gathered at a YWCA office in Seoul, Friday, to mark the one-year anniversary of the MERS here. They exchanged opinions over how far the country's medical system has improved since the outbreak.
"If the government had invested the money in preventing infectious diseases, I think the country would have been safe from diseases such as MERS for at least 10 years," Professor Kim Yoon from Seoul National University College of Medicine said.
Korea spends more than 38 trillion won on defense. In terms of protecting lives, he noted, investment in health security should be considered as a similar form of insurance.
"The government needs to invest in advance rather than spend money on taking care of the mess afterward," he said.
The outbreak began on May 20, 2015, when a 67-year-old man tested positive for the virus after returning from the Middle East. The disease proceeded to kill 38 people, including a teenager and a pregnant woman out of the 186 infected.
Many experts blamed Korea's hospital culture, in which family and friends crowd around to take care of the sick, for the unusually quick spread here.
But Lee Ju-ho, leader of the Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union, said that a lack of government funding is what created the culture in the first place.
"Family and friends basically do the job of medical workers, who cannot spend enough time with each patient, and hospitals cannot afford enough of them," he said.
Since the outbreak, calls have grown for a system that allows only health workers to take care of patients. However, adopting such system would cost the government 4.5 trillion won, according to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. With hospitals relying largely on government subsidies under the national insurance system, the issue will likely remain unsolved unless the government drastically increases its budget for health.
Eom Joong-sik, an infectious diseases specialist at Hallym University Medical Center, said the government needs a single Cheong Wa Dae level entity to coordinate the nation's efforts to prepare and combat infectious diseases, citing that directions from different government agencies during the MERS crisis confused medical workers.
"The government needs to create something that can coordinate not only the health ministry but also the finance ministry and the National Assembly to effectively solve issues regarding health security, from budgeting to coping with outbreaks," he said.
"Over the past year, I have seen so many conflicts of opinion among different government agencies, and almost nothing gets done."
Some medical workers from different hospitals said a MERS crisis could happen again at any time, saying suspected MERS patients visit them from time to time.
Byun Keum-sun, a 50-year-old woman who recovered from MERS, also participated in the discussion, offering gratitude for medical workers' efforts.
"The pain was excruciating. When a doctor asked me about my symptoms, I said I wanted to die. I couldn't eat for days, and I slept in a bathroom because I kept vomiting," she said. "I was touched by medical workers who did their best to help me. They gave me the hope to live."
This question is still important because the nation remains ill-prepared to cope with epidemics.
Health experts gathered at a YWCA office in Seoul, Friday, to mark the one-year anniversary of the MERS here. They exchanged opinions over how far the country's medical system has improved since the outbreak.
"If the government had invested the money in preventing infectious diseases, I think the country would have been safe from diseases such as MERS for at least 10 years," Professor Kim Yoon from Seoul National University College of Medicine said.
Korea spends more than 38 trillion won on defense. In terms of protecting lives, he noted, investment in health security should be considered as a similar form of insurance.
"The government needs to invest in advance rather than spend money on taking care of the mess afterward," he said.
The outbreak began on May 20, 2015, when a 67-year-old man tested positive for the virus after returning from the Middle East. The disease proceeded to kill 38 people, including a teenager and a pregnant woman out of the 186 infected.
Many experts blamed Korea's hospital culture, in which family and friends crowd around to take care of the sick, for the unusually quick spread here.
But Lee Ju-ho, leader of the Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union, said that a lack of government funding is what created the culture in the first place.
"Family and friends basically do the job of medical workers, who cannot spend enough time with each patient, and hospitals cannot afford enough of them," he said.
Since the outbreak, calls have grown for a system that allows only health workers to take care of patients. However, adopting such system would cost the government 4.5 trillion won, according to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. With hospitals relying largely on government subsidies under the national insurance system, the issue will likely remain unsolved unless the government drastically increases its budget for health.
Eom Joong-sik, an infectious diseases specialist at Hallym University Medical Center, said the government needs a single Cheong Wa Dae level entity to coordinate the nation's efforts to prepare and combat infectious diseases, citing that directions from different government agencies during the MERS crisis confused medical workers.
"The government needs to create something that can coordinate not only the health ministry but also the finance ministry and the National Assembly to effectively solve issues regarding health security, from budgeting to coping with outbreaks," he said.
"Over the past year, I have seen so many conflicts of opinion among different government agencies, and almost nothing gets done."
Some medical workers from different hospitals said a MERS crisis could happen again at any time, saying suspected MERS patients visit them from time to time.
Byun Keum-sun, a 50-year-old woman who recovered from MERS, also participated in the discussion, offering gratitude for medical workers' efforts.
"The pain was excruciating. When a doctor asked me about my symptoms, I said I wanted to die. I couldn't eat for days, and I slept in a bathroom because I kept vomiting," she said. "I was touched by medical workers who did their best to help me. They gave me the hope to live."
This question is still important because the nation remains ill-prepared to cope with epidemics.
Health experts gathered at a YWCA office in Seoul, Friday, to mark the one-year anniversary of the MERS here. They exchanged opinions over how far the country's medical system has improved since the outbreak.
"If the government had invested the money in preventing infectious diseases, I think the country would have been safe from diseases such as MERS for at least 10 years," Professor Kim Yoon from Seoul National University College of Medicine said.
Korea spends more than 38 trillion won on defense. In terms of protecting lives, he noted, investment in health security should be considered as a similar form of insurance.
"The government needs to invest in advance rather than spend money on taking care of the mess afterward," he said.
The outbreak began on May 20, 2015, when a 67-year-old man tested positive for the virus after returning from the Middle East. The disease proceeded to kill 38 people, including a teenager and a pregnant woman out of the 186 infected.
Many experts blamed Korea's hospital culture, in which family and friends crowd around to take care of the sick, for the unusually quick spread here.
But Lee Ju-ho, leader of the Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union, said that a lack of government funding is what created the culture in the first place.
"Family and friends basically do the job of medical workers, who cannot spend enough time with each patient, and hospitals cannot afford enough of them," he said.
Since the outbreak, calls have grown for a system that allows only health workers to take care of patients. However, adopting such system would cost the government 4.5 trillion won, according to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. With hospitals relying largely on government subsidies under the national insurance system, the issue will likely remain unsolved unless the government drastically increases its budget for health.
Eom Joong-sik, an infectious diseases specialist at Hallym University Medical Center, said the government needs a single Cheong Wa Dae level entity to coordinate the nation's efforts to prepare and combat infectious diseases, citing that directions from different government agencies during the MERS crisis confused medical workers.
"The government needs to create something that can coordinate not only the health ministry but also the finance ministry and the National Assembly to effectively solve issues regarding health security, from budgeting to coping with outbreaks," he said.
"Over the past year, I have seen so many conflicts of opinion among different government agencies, and almost nothing gets done."
Some medical workers from different hospitals said a MERS crisis could happen again at any time, saying suspected MERS patients visit them from time to time.
Byun Keum-sun, a 50-year-old woman who recovered from MERS, also participated in the discussion, offering gratitude for medical workers' efforts.
"The pain was excruciating. When a doctor asked me about my symptoms, I said I wanted to die. I couldn't eat for days, and I slept in a bathroom because I kept vomiting," she said. "I was touched by medical workers who did their best to help me. They gave me the hope to live."