Park vows new system to fight new types of infectious diseases

South Korea will build up a new disease control system to better fight new kinds of contagious diseases like the MERS virus, President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday as the country is scrambling to contain the spread of the virus. “With this experience as a basis, I plan to build up things like an organization, workforce and institutions in order to deal with new types of infectious diseases more effectively,” Park said in a meeting with experts from U.S. and world disease prevention bodies. She admitted to the government’s failure in bringing the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome under control in the initial stage of the outbreak. “We couldn’t curb the inflow and spread of MERS in the initial stage because we have experienced a new kind of contagious disease, which originated in camels, for the first time,” the president said, adding that the government is making every effort to end the spread of the...