SEOUL] South Korea confirmed on Thursday that a man who died a day earlier was infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), marking the third fatality in an outbreak of the often-deadly virus.

The 82-year old South Korean man, in hospital with asthma and bacterial pneumonia, had shared a room with others suffering from MERS and died on Wednesday night, the health ministry said in a statement.

The victim is the 36th person confirmed to have been infected with MERS in South Korea, the largest outbreak outside the Middle East.

REUTERS