【明報專訊】MIDDLE EAST RESPIRATORY SYNDROME (MERS) is spreading in South Korea. The situation there is worsening, much to the detriment of the mainland and the SAR. Because the South Korean authorities have overlooked the MERS situation there, other countries and regions have little information on it. For example, Hong Kong's request that South Korea provide it with a list of affected hospitals has been ignored. Hong Kong has given South Korea information on people who have been in contact with confirmed MERS cases. However, such a South Korean man was intercepted neither when he returned to South Korea nor when he again left the country. It was after he had again flown to Hong Kong that he was spotted and put into quarantine. Any man who has been in contact with a person diagnosed with MERS is a risk. It is necessary to isolate him for two weeks to ascertain whether he has contracted the disease. As the man has kept flying from one place to another, he may bring great misfortune on the region if he is diagnosed with MERS and becomes a "super-transmitter" of the virus.