Last month, South Korea recorded its first case of the deadly Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a businessman complained of fever after returning from a business trip to Saudi Arabia.
This recent outbreak was brought into South Korea by a 68-year-old businessman who had been on a trip to the Middle East.
He visited a number of hospitals and clinics when he became ill and dozens of other patients and hospital workers were infected before it was discovered that he had contracted MERS.
Since then, nearly 3,000 people have been placed in isolation and 2,200 schools closed.
The poorly understood disease - believed to have transferred to human from animals - belongs to the family of coronaviruses that includes the common cold and SARS.
It can cause fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure and has no vaccine and as much as a 40% mortality rate.
The governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds the South Korean capital, Seoul, said 32 general hospitals were working to curb the outbreak, offering to take in anyone showing symptoms of MERS
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