Health Highlights: June 15, 2015

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

MERS Claims 11th Life in South Korea

An 11th person in South Korea has died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and two hospitals have been temporarily closed in an effort to stem the outbreak.

However, health officials said they believe the disease has peaked and will begin easing in coming days, the Associated Press reported.

That’s because the maximum two-week incubation period for people infected with MERS at a Seoul hospital — which is believed to be the main source of the outbreak — ended Friday.

On Thursday, another hospital in Seoul and one in the southern city of Changwon were ordered to close after it was learned that MERS patients at the hospitals had contact with hundreds of people before they tested positive for the virus, the AP reported.

The Seoul hospital is scheduled to reopen June 23 and the Changwon hospital on June 24, officials said.

There is little danger of MERS spreading from the two hospitals because officials are quarantining people who had contact with infected patients and monitoring them, the AP reported.

About 2,790 schools and kindergartens across the country remained closed Friday.

Since the first case was reported last month, there have been more than 120 MERS cases in South Korea. The outbreak in that country is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, the AP reported.

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