By Jung Min-ho



It is not just the public that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus is impacting ― the good name of Korea's medical excellence has also been seriously damaged.



Over the past three weeks, the killer virus has spread into what was regarded as the nation's finest hospitals, including Samsung Medical Center and Asan Medical Center in Seoul.



While some predict that the negative impact of MERS on Korea's medical industry will be limited, others believe it will last longer because some medical institutions apparently failed to stop the virus spreading.



According to the Korea Tourism Organization, more than 20,000 tourists from China and other Asian countries have already canceled trips to Korea due to their increasing concern over the MERS outbreak. Many of them planned to get medical services here.



Speaking to a local news organization, a plastic surgeon in Gangnam, southern Seoul, said that the number of visitors to his hospital has dropped by 70 percent.



"Almost every call I receive these days is for a cancellation," said the doctor, who refused to be named. "I'm concerned over whether the number is ever going to rebound."



This bodes ill for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's ambitious plan to quadruple the number of foreign visitors here for medical purposes to 1 million by 2020.



"The government tried to attract medical tourists, but the MERS epidemic showed that it is not even capable of keeping it under control," the Korean Federation Medical Activist Groups for Health Rights said in a statement.



To minimize the damage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has run a task force to keep the outbreak from undermining Korea's national image.



The ministry is concerned that reports of the MERS cases will reduce the number of foreign tourists, fuel anti-Korean sentiment and hurts the nation's international reputation.



