• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.249-259
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• 2023

Purpose: Since patients on hemodialysis (HD) are known to be vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many studies were conducted regarding the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in HD patients in Western countries. Here, we assessed antibody response of HD patients for 6 months post-vaccination to identify the duration and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Asian population. Materials and Methods: We compared antibody response of the COVID-19 vaccine in HD patients with healthy volunteers. Patient and control groups had two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and mRNA-1273, respectively. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) was measured before vaccination, 2 weeks after the first dose, 2 and 4 weeks, 3 and 6 months after the second dose. Neutralizing antibody was measured before vaccination and at 2 weeks, 3 and 6 months after second dose. Since the third dose was started in the middle of the study, we analyzed the effect of the third dose as well. Results: Although antibody production was weaker than the control group (n=22), the patient group (n=39) showed an increase in IgG and neutralizing antibody after two doses. And, 21/39 patients and 14/22 participants had a third dose (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 in the patient group, mRNA-1273 in the control group), and it did not affect antibody response in both group. Trend analysis showed IgG and neutralizing antibody did not decrease over time. Age, sex, and HD vintage did not affect antibody production in HD patients. Patients with higher body mass index displayed better seroresponse, while those on immunosuppressants showed poor seroresponse. Conclusion: Two doses of vaccination led to significant antibody response in HD patients, and the antibody did not wane until 6 months.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.319-327
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• 2023

Purpose: Patients with hematological malignancies are at an increased risk of severe infection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, developing an adequate immune response after vaccination is difficult, especially in patients with lymphoid neoplasms. Since the long-term effects of the BNT162b2 vaccine are unclear, the humoral immune response 5 months after the two vaccinations in patients with hematological disorders was analyzed. Materials and Methods: Samples were collected from 96 patients vaccinated twice with BNT162b2 and treated with at least one line of an antitumor or immunosuppressive drug in our hospital from November 2021 to February 2022. Serum anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (anti-SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) antibody titers were analyzed. Patients were age- and sex-matched using propensity matching and compared with a healthy control group. Patients with serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibodies were defined as 'responder' if >50 U/mL. The patients had B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, etc. Results: Patients had significantly low antibody levels (median, 55.3 U/mL vs. 809.8 U/mL; p<0.001) and a significantly low response rate (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that patients with B-NHL, aged >72 years, were associated with a low response to vaccination. There were no significant differences between patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and healthy controls. Conclusion: Our study shows that patients with hematological disorders are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 infections because of low responsiveness to vaccination. Moreover, the rate of antibody positivity differed between the disease groups. Further studies are warranted to determine an appropriate preventive method for these patients, especially those with B-NHL.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2023

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the scope of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of pregnant women about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. Materials and Methods: A total of 886 pregnant women were recruited for the study. A cross-sectional questionnaire was conducted on these selected participants. Data about past infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), SARS-CoV-2 infection of closely related people, and deaths due to COVID-19 among their relatives were questioned. Results: The rate of vaccination was higher (64.1%) in pregnant women with higher education levels. Informing about the vaccine, especially by health professionals, showed that the rates of vaccination (25%) increased (p<0.001). In addition, a significant increase was observed in vaccination rates with increasing age and financial income (p<0.001). Conclusion: The main limitation of our study is that the vaccine, which was approved for "emergency use", was just started to be administered to pregnant women during the study. Our findings show that our target audience, low-income, low-education, younger pregnant women should be given more attention than those who apply to the doctor for routine follow-up.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.590-604
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• 2021

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the safety of Korean medicine treatment in patients vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/AZD1222). Methods: We investigated patients at Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital who were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine between June 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021. The safety of Korean medicine treatment was evaluated by examining adverse events that occurred within seven days of vaccination, including liver function and kidney function testing, assessment of the severity of adverse events, and examination of causality to vaccines and Korean medicine treatment. Results: Eleven patients vaccinated with the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were included. A total of 19 adverse events were reported: 15 systemic adverse events, three local adverse events, and one alanine aminotransferase increase. The most commonly reported systemic adverse events were fatigue (4 cases, 36.4%), headache (4 cases, 36.4%), and myalgia (4 cases, 36.4%). All adverse events were rated below moderate (grade 2) in severity. Systemic and local adverse events were evaluated as definitely related to vaccination and unlikely to be related to Korean medicine treatment, while alanine aminotransferase increase was evaluated as unlikely to be related to either the vaccine or Korean medicine treatment. Aspartate transaminase, Blood urea nitrogen, and creatinine were measured within the reference range after vaccination. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the severity and frequency of adverse events in patients vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine did not increase after Korean medicine treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.375-390
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• 2022

Influenza viruses are zoonotic respiratory pathogens, and influenza infections have caused a substantial burden on public health systems and the livestock industry. Although currently approved seasonal influenza vaccines have shown potent protection efficacy against antigenically well-matched strains, there are considerable unmet needs for the efficient control of viral infections. Enormous efforts have been made to develop broadly protective universal influenza vaccines to tackle the huge levels of genetic diversity and variability of influenza viruses. In addition, antiviral drugs have been considered important interventions for the treatment of viral infections. The viral neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir is the most widely used antiviral medication to treat influenza A and influenza B viruses. However, unsatisfactory clinical outcomes resulting from side effects and the emergence of resistant variants have led to greater attention being paid to plants as a natural resource for anti-influenza drugs. In particular, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has underpinned the need for safe and effective antiviral drugs with a broad spectrum of antiviral activity to prevent the rapid spread of viruses among humans. This review outlines the results of the antiviral activities of various natural products isolated from plants against influenza viruses. Special focus is paid to the virucidal effects and the immune-enhancing effects of antiviral natural products, since the products have broad applications as inactivating agents for the preparation of inactivated vaccines and vaccine adjuvants.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.281-298
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• 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has so far given the world a great shock and fear that cannot be compared to other infectious diseases, and local economies are experiencing a serious economic crisis accordingly. This paper examines the regional characteristics of economic recession and resilience due to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the employment fluctuations in 85 cities nationwide. Although the overall trend is in line with national employment indicators, there are some differences in the shock response and the recovery of employment in individual cities. The difference between cities is somewhat greater in the resilience of the recovery stage than the resistance, which is the shock-response stage. In terms of resilience, cities in the capital area have relatively good condition compared to cities in the non-capital area. The weak resilience of large cities such as Seoul, which has a high population density, can be explained to be the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic of infectious diseases. Regarding the economic structure of the city, the ratio of service and sales workers, wholesalers and retailers, and food and lodging businesses are analyzed as valid explanatory variables for the resilience of cities.

• Prospectives of Industrial Chemistry
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

2019년 12월 중국에서 최초 보고된 이후 COVID-19 전염병은 전 세계에 대유행(팬데믹)을 확산하면서 역사적인 변화를 일으키고 있다. 경제, 사회 전반에 코로나 전과 코로나 후에 대한 새로운 규범과 질서를 강요하고 있다. 이에 본 고는 코로나19에 대한 이해와 그 영향 및 파급효과와 이를 대처하기 위한 세계 각국의 정책 현황을 살펴보았다. 특히, 치료제와 백신 등 과학적 해결을 위해 치열한 경쟁을 펼치고 있는 연구개발 현황을 고찰함으로써 한국의 관련 과학기술 정책과 연구개발의 방향을 모색하고자 하였다. 코로나19가 몰고 온 커다란 글로벌 위기를 통해 세계 질서가 재편될 가능성이 높아지고 있다. 현재까지 한국은 K-방역을 통해 모범적 방향을 제시하고 있다. 이는 과학기술과 연구개발 및 관련 정책들이 적절하게 역할을 한 결과로 평가된다. 본 고에서 고찰된 내용은 이러한 긍정적 효과를 지속적으로 유지하고 제고하는데 도움이 되고자 하는 것이다.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.223-259
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• 2020

With COVID-19 spreading rapidly around the world, research and development issues on treatments and vaccines for the virus are of high interest. Among them, Remdesivir was the first to show noticeable therapeutic effects and began clinical trials, with each country authorizing the use of the drug through emergency approval. However, Gilead Co., Ltd., the developer of Remdesivir, received a lot of criticism from civic groups for submitting the application for the marketing authorization as an orphan drug. This is because when a new drug got a marketing authorization as an orphan drug could be granted an exclusive status for seven year. The long-term exclusive status of an orphan drug comes from the policy purpose of motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop treatment opportunities for patients suffering from rare diseases, which was not appropriate to apply to infectious disease treatments. This paper provides a review of the problems and improvement directions of the domestic system through comparative legal consideration against the United States, Europe and Japan for the statutes which give exclusive status to medicines. The domestic system has a fundamental problem that it does not have explicit provisions in the statute in the manner of granting exclusive status, and that it uses the review system to give it exclusive status indirectly. In addition, in the case of orphan drugs, the "Rare Diseases Management Act" and the "Regulations on Examination of Items Permission and Reporting of Drugs" provide overlapping review periods, and despite the relatively long monopoly period, there seems to be no check clause to recover exclusive status in the event of a change in circumstances. Given that biopharmaceuticals are difficult to obtain patents, the lack of such provisions is a pity of domestic legislation, although granting exclusive rights may be a great motivation to induce drug development. In the United States, given that the first biosimilar also has a one-year monopoly period, it can be interpreted that domestic legislation is quite strictly limited to granting exclusive status to biopharmaceuticals. The need for improvement of the domestic system will be recognized in that it could undermine local pharmaceutical companies' willingness to develop biopharmaceuticals in the future, and in that it is also necessary to harmonize international regulations. Taking advantage of the emergence of COVID-19 as an opportunity, we look again at the problems of the domestic system that grants exclusive rights to medicines and hope that an overall revision of the relevant legislation will be made to establish a unified legal basis.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.100-109
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• 2021

As the COVID-19 vaccination begins, it is necessary to safely store and manage the vaccination history for vaccinated people, as well as provide only the minimal information for the requested purpose, not in the form of all or nothing, to the institution requesting vaccination personal information. This paper proposes a scheme to safely store and manage the people's vaccination records in a non-forgeable blockchain, and to ensure that users provide only the minimal information necessary to the verifier from their vaccination personal information. A user authorizes the verifier to access the information he has consented with by entering the fingerprint on his smartphone, and in this process, no personal information or secrets can be exposed to an attacker. In addition, it is guaranteed that it is neither possible to impersonate the user nor to steal user personal information even in the case of theft or loss of the smartphone, or leakage of information from the vaccination history management institution. Using the scheme, users have no fear on external exposure of personal information and follow-up damage due to excessive information provision by giving out only the minimal information suited to the verifier.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.442-454
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• 2021

Many domestic and international airlines that experienced dramatic recession due to COVID-19 pandemic are carefully being ready to normalise operations as a number of governments has begun to vaccinate for COVID-19. So with the same market share from domestic to short distant international services, the competition between Full Service Carriers (FSC) and low cost carriers (LCC) is anticipated to be more intensive. To explore the concepts such as the perception, value, attitude and faith of the object, this study implements Q methodology proposed to complement the limitations of quantitative and qualitative research methodology. As a result, the consumers of airlines' brand are divided into three types - the type of utility seeking, value-oriented and task-related. Using Q samples which consist of 25 statements, this study specifically approached the traits of each type by observing the subjectivity with the comparative P sample group that is made up for 20 participants. By discovering the type of FSC and LCC's brand asset and comparing the recognition of consumers, not only does this study evoke the need for a strategic direction of the effective management of Airlines' Brand asset but also have a signification in the way that especially provide hypotheses for follow up studies.