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Temporary severe pneumonia surveillance system was established as of Jun 5th, 2015 because of increasing number of MERS-CoV confirmed patient since the beginnig of MERS-CoV outbreak in May 20th. The main purpose of this interim surveillance system is to find MERS-CoV patients who is not enrolled in Public Health Information System(Contact tracing system). Hospitals with more than 100 beds in 4 main provinces(where confirmed cases were reported in early stage of the outbreak : Seoul, Kyounggi, Chungnam, Daejeon) were requested to participate with the surveillance activities. The case definition of severe pneumonia is defined as 1) pneumonia with unknown pathogens, 2) untreatable pneumonia, 3) pneumonia of patients with underlying chronic conditions such as diabetes, lung disease, renal disease and cardiac disorders or immunocompromised one. If the patient meet one of the case definitions, MERS-CoV diagnostic test was available regardless of clear epidemiological link with confirmed cases and the cost was supported by the government. 190 participating hospitals are asked the number of patient who meet the case definition and the number of diagnostic tests/results by daily phone call from the staffs of Division of Infectious Disease Surveillance. During the surveillance period(June 5th ~ Nov 24th), 10,371 cases were reported and 2,750 MERS-CoV diagnostic tests were conducted. No MERS-CoV positive case was reported. Patients who meet case definition showed no particular trend in the surveillance period and the number of diagnostic tests gradually decreased as MERS-CoV transmission is controlled nationwide. This kind of temporary surveillance systems need to be systematically designed and planned in advance to be more efficient as well as effective in emergency situations.
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