The deadly MERS virus that has emerged in South Korea has not reached the U.S but health officials are trying to stay a step ahead - asking doctors to keep an eye out for infected patients. Health Reporter Erin Billups takes a look at the virus and how to prevent its spread and filed the following report.

South Korea is into week four of the MERS outbreak that has killed 16 people and sickened more than 150 others. Businesses are taking precautions to ease the fears of customers, and schools are just re-opening after being shut for days.

There is concern here in the U.S. from Washington to local health departments.

City health officials are asking doctors and hospitals to get travel histories of any patient who comes in with a fever. And to report cases of respiratory illness if the patient traveled to Korea or the Arabian Peninsula, or came in contact with someone who did.

"Physicians, all health care providers should be aware of this, you know, we can't work without really reading the news, we have to know what's going on in the world in this day and age," says Dr. Robert Glatter, Emergency Physician at Lenox Hill Hospital.

A MERS patient also died this week in Germany after visiting the United Arab Emirates. MERS, short for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, was discovered in Saudi Arabia three years ago.

"To primarily acquire MERS it would often would require contact with camel urine or some kind of secretion of camels or even drinking camel milk, which is unpasteurized. Bats as well are a reservoir for MERS. To actually get MERS, it's not that easy," says Dr. Glatter.

Lenox Hill hospital Emergency Doctor Robert Glatter says MERS is a coronavirus, known to spread more rapidly than others.

"The symptoms of MERS in general are a cough, a fever, but we worry about when respiratory distress develops because that's when people really need to go to the hospital. We're talking about shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, it looks like any virus to begin with," says Dr. Glatter.

There is no vaccine, but experts say if you wash your hands often, avoid close contact with people who are sick, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, and disinfect frequently touched surfaces you should be able to avoid the illness.

The only two known cases in the U.S. occurred in 2014 among healthcare workers who traveled to the Middle East.