The World Health Organization will help South Korea contain an outbreak of the deadly Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome.
A team of experts in virology, epidemiology and public health who previously handled other MERS outbreaks will be dispatched to search for ways to keep the current outbreak from spreading, the WHO said Friday.
The respiratory disease has killed four people and infected 41, according to a report from Reuters. More than 1,300 people are in quarantine.
The WHO so far isn’t calling for travel or trade restrictions due to a lack of evidence surrounding human-to-human transmission.
The outbreak started May 20 when a Korean flying from Bahrain tested positive, according to the South Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The patient also flew to China late last month, according to the World Health Organization.
“The occurrence of such a large outbreak outside the Middle East is a new development,” the organization said.
MERS is a viral respiratory disease that is still relatively new, having been first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is spread from ill people to others through close contact and can affect anyone, the agency added.
There is no specific antiretroviral treatment for a MERS infection, but individuals can get medical care to relieve symptoms, CDC said.
