• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.84 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2021

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can manifest in a range of symptoms, including both asymptomatic systems which appear nearly non-existent to the patient, all the way to the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Specifically, COVID-19-associated pneumonia develops into ARDS due to the rapid progression of hypoxia, and although arterial blood gas analysis can assist in halting this deterioration, the current environment provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an overall lack of medical resources or equipment, has made it difficult to administer such tests in a widespread manner. As a result, this study was conducted in order to determine whether the levels of oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and the fraction of inhaled oxygen (FiO₂) (SF ratio) can also serve as predictors of ARDS and the patient's risk of mortality. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study conducted from February 2020 to Mary 2020, with the study's subjects consisting of COVID-19 pneumonia patients who had reached a state of deterioration that required the use of oxygen therapy. Of the 100 COVID-19 pneumonia cases, we compared 59 pneumonia patients who required oxygen therapy, divided into ARDS and non-ARDS pneumonia patients who required oxygen, and then investigated the different factors which affected their mortality. Results: At the time of admission, the ratios of SpO₂, FiO₂, and SF for the ARDS group differed significantly from those of the non-ARDS pneumonia support group who required oxygen (p<0.001). With respect to the predicting of the occurrence of ARDS, the SF ratio on admission and the SF ratio at exacerbation had an area under the curve which measured to be around 85.7% and 88.8% (p<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified that the SF ratio at exacerbation (hazard ratio [HR], 0.916; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.846-0.991; p=0.029) and National Early Warning Score (NEWS) (HR, 1.277; 95% CI, 1.010-1.615; p=0.041) were significant predictors of mortality. Conclusion: The SF ratio on admission and the SF ratio at exacerbation were strong predictors of the occurrence of ARDS, and the SF ratio at exacerbation and NEWS held a significant effect on mortality.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.37-75
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• 2020

There have been affluent studies on the development of new drugs and these efforts have been crystallized into a separate field of pharmacology. Yet, a normative analysis pertinent to the development of new medicine is still in a dire need, except for studies regarding medical ethics. This piece of work aims to contemplate on the legal issues concerning the development of new drug, encompassing each and every stage of the development. In order to maximize the practicability of the research method adopted as aforementioned, this work strives to analyze the developing process of COVID-19 vaccine. The first step would be to introduce the developmental stages of inventing a new drug, especially that of a COVID-19 vaccine. After then, legal issues related to each developmental stage would be discussed. Henceforth, the legal analysis would contribute to predicting upcoming legal complexities and will be able to offer normative implications for the invention of new medicines.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.41.1-41.11
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• 2020

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The viral genome encodes twelve genes for viral replication and infection. The third open reading frame is the spike (S) gene that encodes for the spike glycoprotein interacting with specific cell surface receptor - angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) - on the host cell membrane. Most recent studies identified a single point mutation in S gene. A single point mutation in S gene leading to an amino acid substitution at codon 614 from an aspartic acid 614 into glycine (D614G) resulted in greater infectivity compared to the wild type SARS-CoV2. We were interested in investigating the mutation region of S gene of SARS-CoV2 from Korean COVID-19 patients. New mutation sites were found in the critical receptor binding domain (RBD) of S gene, which is adjacent to the aforementioned D614G mutation residue. This specific sequence data demonstrated the active progression of SARS-CoV2 by mutations in the RBD of S gene. The sequence information of new mutations is critical to the development of recombinant SARS-CoV2 spike antigens, which may be required to improve and advance the strategy against a wide range of possible SARS-CoV2 mutations.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.24.1-24.7
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• 2021

Tracking the most recent advances in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related research is essential, given the disease's novelty and its impact on society. However, with the publication pace speeding up, researchers and clinicians require automatic approaches to keep up with the incoming information regarding this disease. A solution to this problem requires the development of text mining pipelines; the efficiency of which strongly depends on the availability of curated corpora. However, there is a lack of COVID-19-related corpora, even more, if considering other languages besides English. This project's main contribution was the annotation of a multilingual parallel corpus and the generation of a recommendation dataset (EN-PT and EN-ES) regarding relevant entities, their relations, and recommendation, providing this resource to the community to improve the text mining research on COVID-19-related literature. This work was developed during the 7th Biomedical Linked Annotation Hackathon (BLAH7).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.964-969
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• 2023

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating polyneuropathy characterized by progressive, ascending, and symmetrical paralysis. It is known to be triggered by an antecedent infection or vaccination. Recently, GBS development following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has been reported. Cranial neuropathies in typical GBS patients usually involve the facial and the lower cranial nerves (from IX to XII). We report a rare case of multiple cranial neuropathies involving trigeminal, abducens, and facial nerves in a patient who developed GBS following COVID-19 vaccination on the basis of obvious MRI features.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the preferences of hot spring users regarding the utilization of Asan's hot springs after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A survey was conducted on 340 hot spring users visiting hot spring resorts in the Onyang, Dogo, and Asan hot spring districts. The survey was conducted twice from November 5th to November 7th, 2021, and from May 25th to 26th, 2022. The survey included general questions, such as the frequency of hot spring usage, the purpose of visits, and the intention for future visits. Specific questions were related to Asan hot springs, focusing on the reasons for choosing Asan, its perceived advantages, and improvement suggestions. Results: The survey revealed that the average number of visits to hot springs was less than five in the past five years, and the main reason for visiting was to recover from fatigue. A percentage of respondents said they would use hot springs more often when the COVID-19 pandemic ends. When asked about their reasons for visiting Asan hot springs, responses varied by age. However, across all groups, the majority considered "good water" as an advantage of Asan hot springs, while improvements to "hot spring facilities" was the highest response among all age groups. Thus, despite the decline in the number of customers due to COVID-19, the overall perception of hot springs remains positive. This suggests a promising future for the hot spring industry, with the potential for a return to pre-pandemic usage levels. Conclusion: These results provide valuable foundational data for informing policy development aimed at revitalizing the hot spring industry in the post-COVID-19 era.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.542-551
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• 2023

Objectives: Prospective studies on vaccination status and mortality related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in low-resource settings are still limited. We assessed the association between vaccination status (full, partial, or none) and in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients at most hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia during the Delta predomination wave. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study among hospitalized COVID-19 patients who met the study criteria (>18 years old and admitted for inpatient treatment because of laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection). We linked individual-level data in the hospital admission database with vaccination records. Several socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were also analyzed. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to explore the association between vaccination status and in-hospital mortality in this patient group. Results: In total, 40 827 patients were included in this study. Of these, 70% were unvaccinated (n=28 543) and 19.3% (n=7882) died during hospitalization. The mean age of the patients was 49 years (range, 35-59), 53.2% were female, 22.0% had hypertension, and 14.2% were treated in the intensive care unit, and the median hospital length of stay across the group was 9 days. Our study showed that the risk of in-hospital mortality among fully and partially vaccinated patients was lower than among unvaccinated adults (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40 to 0.47 and aHR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.64 to 0.77, respectively). Conclusions: Vaccinated patients had fewer severe outcomes among hospitalized adults during the Delta wave in Jakarta. These features should be carefully considered by healthcare professionals in treating adults within this patient group.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.262-265
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• 2020

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) poses an important occupational health risk to health workers (HWs) that has attracted global scrutiny. To date, several thousand HWs globally have been reported as infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus that causes the disease. It is therefore a public health priority for policymakers to understand risk factors for this vulnerable group to avert occupational transmission. A rapid review was carried out on 20 April 2020 on Covid-19 risk factors among HWs in PubMed, Google Scholar, and EBSCOHost Web (Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE with Full Text, CINAHL with Full Text, APA PsycInfo, Health Source-Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition) and WHO Global Database. We also searched for preprints on the medRxiv database. We searched for reports, reviews, and primary observational studies (case control, case cross-over, cross-sectional, and cohort). The review included studies conducted among HWs with Covid-19 that reported risk factors irrespective of their sample size. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Lack of personal protective equipment, exposure to infected patients, work overload, poor infection control, and preexisting medical conditions were identified as risk factors for Covid-19 among HWs. In the context of Covid-19, HWs face an unprecedented occupational risk of morbidity and mortality. There is need for rapid development of sustainable measures that protect HWs from the pandemic.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.131-137
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• 2022

The importance of corporate culture for its development has always been a classic research. Through excellent corporate culture, we can analyze the secrets of company success and provide important reference significance for other company brands. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has greatly increased its international recognition with its excellent efficacy, which has brought development opportunities to the TCM industry. The object of this research is the Beijing Tongrentang Group Co., Ltd. Tongrentang is a representative of Chinese time-honored brands in TCM industry. It has a development history of more than 350 years. It carries the traditional Chinese culture and Chinese medicine culture. The corporate culture of Tongrentang was thus extended and developed into 'Benevolence & love', 'Honesty & trustworthiness' and 'Quality first'. We can see that a good corporate culture is particularly important. This paper studies the unique Corporate culture of Tongrentang, and the reasons of company success. Hoping to help the company through this paper, so as to improve the company in the future. And put forward a certain practical significance and value.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.433-443
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• 2022

Purpose: This qualitative study was to understand the awareness of epidemiological investigation tasks for nurses who were in charge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemiological investigations. Methods: Before data collection, written consent was obtained from 13 participants, and the data were then collected from September 1 to December 31, 2021. Individual interviews were conducted and recorded by video interview using Zoom, and data were transcribed verbatim. Four themes were derived by using the qualitative thematic analysis method. Results: The participants perceived that epidemiological investigations were burdensome but that the field work was important, and that expertise and collaboration were required. The participants started work without preparation due to the explosive increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and they recognized work conflicts, unstable employment, and exhaustion as obstacles to their work performance. On the other hand, the participants took pride in contributing to the national epidemiological investigation and control and felt a sense of responsibility as nursing professionals. Finally, participants mentioned that the training of infectious disease practitioner was important for work improvement. Conclusion: Further research is needed on the development of standardized manuals for the training of nursing personnel as infectious disease specialists through the job analysis of epidemiological investigators.