Claim: Special Report: Italy and South Korea virus outbreaks reveal disparity in deaths and tactics.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates. According to a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) publication, on April 2014, Tunisia had a total of 3 cases with 1 fatality. In May 2015, the first case in South Korea was confirmed in a man who had visited several Middle Eastern countries. As of 16 June 2015, a total of 150 cases has been infected, including 18 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of 29 June 2015, 32 people in South Korea have died from this outbreak, with 182 confirmed cases of infection. There

title: South Korea foot-and-mouth outbreak
text: had dead livestocks buried around 4 drinking water facilities in Gyeonggi-do. A ProMED-mail post described the epizootic and subsequent cancellations of festivities as being reminiscent of Britain's February 19, 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, and even more so of an outbreak in Japan beginning late March 2010, which was caused by the same strain of the virus. In that epizootic cattle herds were found to be 3.9-4.5 times more susceptible to the virus than pig herds, but pig herds had 5.0-13.6 times greater relative infectiousness; thus cattle on infected premises suffered a cumulative incidence of 8.5%, whereas 36.4% of pigs were

title: Virus (novel)
text: in the Alps. Although some local communities have been reporting small animals suddenly dropping dead in their area, an Italian matinee idol's death in an auto crash in early March sparks media attention. His girlfriend dies shortly after a press conference eight days later, but not before she reveals that the actor died of a heart attack just before the accident despite being in good health. Several European countries are also reporting sudden deaths of important livestock. Over the second quarter, outbreaks of influenza and polio take place around the world, and news of random heart attacks even hog the

title: 2009 flu pandemic in Asia
text: in South Korea, on 30 April. On 2 May, the first suspected woman turned out to be infected with the influenza A subtype H1N1. South Korea became the third infected nation in Asia, after Israel and Hong Kong. There have been approx. 2100 cases in S.Korea as of 16 August 2009. On 15 August, the first Korean death by the new influenza was confirmed publicly and a second death was announced on 16 August. Around 15000 cases and 14 deaths have been reported as of 12 October 2009. On 20 May 2009, the first case of the influenza has been

title: Influenza A virus subtype H5N8
text: official delegations from Japan, South Korea and China gathered in Beijing for a symposium on preventing and controlling bird flu and other diseases in East Asia, according to the website of China's ministry of agriculture. By the end of December the outbreak had spread to South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Thousands of birds and animals were being culled in Germany to stop the spread. In the United Kingdom the flu was found in a wild duck at a turkey farm in Lincolnshire. In South Korea, a total of record 18.4 million birds had been killed by December

title: Health in South Korea
text: indexes: incidence rate, prevalence rate and death rate are the worst among the OECD countries since 1996 when South Korea became a member of OECD. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, chronic illness account for the majority of diseases in South Korea, a condition exacerbated by the health care system’s focus on treatment rather than prevention. The incidence of chronic disease in South Korea hovers around 24 percent. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rate of prevalence at the end of 2003 was less than 0.1 percent. In 2001 central government expenditures on health care accounted for about 6

title: 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
text: points to stem the economic fallout from the outbreak. South Korea's department store sales decreased by 16.5% compared to the same period last year, and retail shops also decreased 3.4%, according to the Minister of Strategy and Finance, as of June 17, 2015. As of 17 June 2015, 100,000 tourist visits to the nation had been cancelled. 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea An outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred in South Korea from May 2015 to July 2015. The virus, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was a newly emerged betacoronavirus that was

title: 2009 flu pandemic in Europe
text: well. As of 26 July the amount of swine flu cases is 618 with community outbreaks contributing to the number. On 4 September the first death was confirmed in Italy. On 19 September the second death was confirmed in Italy. On 24 July, the authorities in Kosovo announced that the samples of three suspected cases had been sent to the laboratory for analysis. According to the authorities, the three cases had had contact with other people who were infected by the A/H1N1 virus. Two of them had previously visited Switzerland and Sweden, and one of them was in the United

title: Foot-and-mouth disease
text: and in January 2011, South Korean officials started a mass cull of approximately 12%, or around three million in total, of the entire domestic pig population, and 107,000 of three million cattle of the country to halt the outbreak. According to the report based on complete 1D gene sequences, Korean serotype A virus was linked with those from Laos. Korean serotype O viruses were divided into three clades and were closely related to isolates from Japan, Thailand, the UK, France, Ireland, South Africa, and Singapore, as well as Laos. On 10 February 2011, North Korea reported an outbreak affecting pigs

title: 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
text: isolated, 64 patients were infected and 5 infected patients died, the central government finally disclosed the names of MERS exposed medical institutions on 7 June 2015. On 7 June 2015, the South Korean government released the names of 24 MERS-affected hospitals to the public. These hospitals include the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's (SeongMo) Hospital (평택성모병원) and the Seoul Samsung Hospital (삼성서울병원), an affiliate of Samsung Medical Center. [The facts of this incident have not been clearly written and require verification.] On 26 May 2015, a 44-year-old South Korean man, his father and elder sister [were all] confirmed to be infected by

title: Health in South Korea
text: male in South Korea, more than twice of 4.6% of Western Pacific Region. An outbreak, MERS occurred in South Korea in May 2015 by a Korean who visited the Middle East and carried the MERS virus to Korea. Seven Months later, the government officially declared that the outbreak is over. According to the Environmental Performance Index 2016, South Korea ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in terms of air quality. More than 50 percent of the populations in South Korea exposed to dangerous levels of fine dust. South Korea ranks last place among OECD countries for tuberculosis. Its three major

title: Epidemiology of chikungunya
text: Nadu. As of August 2006, nearly 100,000 people were infected in Tamil Nadu. Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu is one of the worst affected. On 24 August 2006, "The Hindu" newspaper reported that the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala had reported 1.1 million (11 lakh) cases. The government's claim of no deaths is questioned. In September 2007, 130 cases were confirmed in the province of Ravenna, Northern Italy, in the contiguous towns of Castiglione di Cervia and Castiglione di Ravenna. One person died. The source of the outbreak was an Indian

title: 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
text: 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea An outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred in South Korea from May 2015 to July 2015. The virus, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was a newly emerged betacoronavirus that was first identified in a patient from Saudi Arabia in April 2012. From the outbreak, a total of 186 cases have been infected, with a death toll of 36. South Korea reported its first MERS case on 20 May 2015. A 68-year-old man returning from the Middle East was diagnosed with MERS nine days after he initially sought

title: Influenza A virus subtype H5N6
text: reported in China. In bird, by December there were four outbreaks in China since October and forced the culling of more than 170,000 birds. By December 2016 South Korea had raised its bird flu alert to highest level for the first time. The heightened alarm status came as the country grappled with an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu that started a month ago in November. By the start of December H5N6 avian influenza was reported in bird droppings in Hong Kong. Influenza A virus subtype H5N6 H5N6 is a subtype of the species Influenza A virus (sometimes

title: North Korea
text: half of the average 57% of all deaths in other low-income countries. In 2003 infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, and hepatitis B were described as endemic to the country as a result of the famine. However, in 2013, they were reported to be in decline. In 2013, cardiovascular disease as a single disease group was reported as the largest cause of death in North Korea. The three major causes of death in DPR Korea are ischaemic heart disease (13%), lower respiratory infections (11%) and cerebrovascular disease (7%). Non-communicable diseases risk factors in North Korea include high rates of urbanisation, an

title: The Pyongyang Times
text: poor human rights record. It has stated that 50 percent of South Koreans are unemployed, 57.6 percent are infected with tuberculosis, and that American soldiers with AIDS are posted in the south as a deliberate policy to infect the South Korean population. In a 31 May 1986 article, it criticized the decision that the 1988 Olympics were to be held in South Korea, claiming that "If the Olympic Games were to be held in South Korea, many sportsmen and tourists of the world would meet death, infected with AIDS." Meanwhile, it has described North Korea as the only country in

title: Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War
text: spreading "deliberate lies." A few days later, Vice Admiral Charles Turner Joy repeated the denials. On 28 January 1952, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army headquarters received a report of a smallpox outbreak southeast of Incheon. From February to March 1952, more bulletins reported disease outbreaks in the area of Chorwon, Pyongyang, Kimhwa and even Manchuria. The Chinese soon became concerned when 13 Korean and 16 Chinese soldiers contracted cholera and the plague, while another 44 recently deceased were tested positive for meningitis. Although the Chinese and the North Koreans did not know exactly how the soldiers contracted the diseases, the

title: South Korea foot-and-mouth outbreak
text: more than US$1 billion worth of livestock have been lost so far to the disease, including government efforts to halt the spread. According to Kim Jae-hong, a veterinary science professor at Seoul National University, the outbreak is "the most serious in Korea's history" and it is difficult to say when the spread of the disease will be stopped, and he said that "the most important thing right now is to control movement in and out of the farmhouses that are affected, and thoroughly disinfect the cars around the area". South Korea's Citizens' Institute for Environmental Studies revealed 32 places that

title: 2009 flu pandemic in Europe
text: in the east of the country. The death toll currently stands at nine. On 1 October, two further deaths were announced, bringing the total fatalities to four. A woman who returned from San Diego was hospitalised in Venice for suspected swine flu. As of 30 April, about 20 suspected cases of swine flu are monitored in Italy. On 2 May, Reuters confirmed that Italy had a case of swine flu. It was recorded in a 50-year-old man in Massa after he returned from Mexico City. He, however, had very mild symptoms (i.e. aches, coughing, but no fever) and is recovering

title: Health in South Korea
text: Health in South Korea Life expectancy has been rising rapidly and South Korea ranked 11th in the world for life expectancy in 2016. South Korea has among the lowest HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate in the world, with just 0.1% of the population being infected, significantly lower than the U.S. at 0.6%, France's 0.4%, and the UK's 0.3% prevalence rate. South Korea ranked highest in influenza vaccination in Asia at 311 vaccines per 1,000 people. A new measure of expected human capital calculated for 195 countries from 1990 to 2016 and defined for each birth cohort as the expected years lived