WHO: MERS in S Korea is complex

Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is "large and complex" and more cases should be anticipated.

The WHO has conducted a joint review with South Korean officials and experts of the country's response to the MERS outbreak that has infected 138 people and killed 14 of them since the first case was diagnosed on May 20.

South Korea's health ministry on Saturday reported 12 new cases of MERS. The new cases, including an ambulance driver who transported a previous patient, follow four that were reported on Friday. The lower number had raised hopes that the outbreak might be slowing, although officials and experts predicted there would be more new cases.

A 67-year-old woman who contracted the MERS virus from an existing patient became the 14th person to die in the outbreak, the ministry said. All fatalities have been among elderly patients or those who had been suffering serious existing ailments.

The outbreak is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease was first identified in humans in 2012, and has stirred fears in Asia of a repeat of a 2002-2003 scare when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed about 800 people worldwide.

MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS. It is deadlier than SARS but does not spread as easily, yet. There is no cure or vaccine.