Two MERS patients injected with antiserum for virus 메르스 완치자 면역혈청

There is no cure or vaccine for the MERS virus， but health authorities in Korea think they′ve found a way to treat it.
The results？ Only time will tell.
Shin Se－min has more.
Patients 35 and 119， both of whom are in their thirties， have both received injections of an antiserum comprised of antibodies and donated blood from two people who beat the virus.
The health ministry′s MERS control tower made the announcement Tuesday and said the patients are being monitored closely.
The method has been used before， but not widely， and it′s the first application of the immunotherapy for MERS in Korea.
Scientists believe that the amount of antibodies in the blood of the survivor is greater than in others，… leading to the use of this kind of immunotherapy for MERS.
During the Ebola and SARS outbreaks， doctors used a similar kind of blood－based therapy，... as there were no readily effective drugs or vaccines available.
And it is still used for new types of viruses with no cure in this case，... MERS.
Experts say there haven′t been enough previous clinical trials for plasma transfusions of the virus，… so they are skeptical about whether it will actually work.

″It′s a burden for the medical institutions in charge of the transfusions，… as there isn′t enough clinical evidence to support the idea of blood transfusions as a treatment for the virus.″
Questions about the treatment′s effectiveness have also arisen because it was given to patients who were already past the early stages of infection.
Normally， plasma transfusions are more effective when they are given right after a patient has contracted an infection， but the medical authorities wanted to find the best candidates for the treatment.
So far， the patients in question haven′t shown much improvement， but everyone′s fingers are crossed that therapy will work.
Shin Se－min， Arirang News.