This outbreak demonstrates the potential for clusters
of emerging infectious diseases to have very substantial
societal and economic impact. In South Korea with
a population of 50 million, 166 cases of MERS caused
major reductions in tourism, nationwide school closures,
and some preliminary forecasts for a growth
in annual gross domestic product reduced by at least
0.1% [27]. As this outbreak appears to be coming to
an end, focus of public health authorities may shift
from the immediate control efforts towards a detailed
investigation of the mechanisms and causes that led
to the superspreading events. The parallels with superspreading
events driving the spread of SARS in 2003 in
Hong Kong and Singapore emphasise the importance
of understanding these events and of determining the
measures that could be taken to reduce the risk of similar
incidents happening in the future.