An Appropriate Lower Respiratory Tract Specimen Is Essential for Diagnosis of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)

The editorial, "Better understanding on MERS Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in Korea, " was previously published by Lee (1). He briefly summarized the ongoing status of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and emphasized close monitoring of medical staffs, patients, and visitors, and timely well-designed briefings to mass media. He pointed out critical aspects to control the MERS-CoV outbreak in Korea. The present opinion proposes a topic on MERS by focusing on early diagnosis of patients via appropriate specimen collection.