How one man infected 82 with killer virus in hospital

The outbreak in South Korea began with a 68-year old man — known as “patient 1” — who had travelled to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Spring of 2015.

Correctly diagnosed, he was admitted to Samsung and isolated from other patients.

But unknown to doctors and health officials, he had already infected several other people, including a 35-year old man with whom he shared a ward in another health facility.

It was this younger man, “patient 14,” who later spread the virus through Samsung’s emergency ward.

The researchers estimate that nearly 1,600 people were exposed to patient 14 in the emergency room.

Of the 82 who were infected, 33 were patients, eight were health care workers, and 41 were visitors.

Patients staying in the same zone of the emergency room had a 20 percent chance of contracting MERS, the study found.