• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.140-146
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• 2024

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), causing multi-organ damage affecting the heart, lungs, kidneys, digestive tract, and nervous system. As the cases of MIS-C have been increasing following the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of appropriate management for MIS-C is becoming increasingly apparent. Immunomodulating agents such as anakinra, infliximab, and steroids are regarded as supplementary therapy to the first-line treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin. However, these immunomodulating therapies can potentially precipitate opportunistic infections, including those caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus, and tuberculosis, or increase the risk of co-infections. Herein, we report a case of a 3-year-old boy who was treated with immunoglobulin, infliximab, and high-dose methylprednisolone for MIS-C, and subsequently developed a persistent fever lasting 32 days caused by a CMV infection.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

A cluster of severe pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan City, Hubei province in China emerged in December 2019. A novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was isolated from lower respiratory tract sample as the causative agent. The current outbreak of infections with SARS-CoV-2 is termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO). COVID-19 rapidly spread into at least 114 countries and killed more than 4,000 people by March 11, 2020. WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. There have been 2 novel coronavirus outbreaks in the past 2 decades. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 caused by SARS-CoV had a case fatality rate of around 10% (8,098 confirmed cases and 774 deaths), while Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) caused by MERS-CoV killed 858 people out of a total 2,499 confirmed cases between 2012 and 2019. The purpose of this review is to summarize known-to-date information about SARS-CoV-2, transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and clinical features of COVID-19.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2024

Purpose: Since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, various variants of concern have emerged. We divided the representative COVID-19 mutation period into four waves and aimed to analyze the clinical and laboratory features of children with COVID-19 from pre-mutation wave to the middle of omicron wave. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of hospitalized patients aged ≤19 years with laboratory confirmed COVID-19. Clinical and laboratory findings during pre-mutation (February 1st 2020 to September 30th 2020), alpha/beta (October 1st 2020 to May 31st 2021), delta (June 1st 2021 to October 31st 2021), and omicron (November 1st 2021 to May 31st 2022) waves were compared. Results: Among total 827 patients, 163 (19.7%) were asymptomatic, and the frequency of fever and cough was 320 (38.7%) and 399 (48.2%), respectively. The proportion of fever ≥38.5℃ was observed to be high during the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years. Lymphopenia was observed highly in the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years, and in the delta wave in the age group older than 12 years. Neutropenia was highly observed in the delta wave in the 0-4 years age group. Conclusions: There were distinct characteristics during all epidemic waves of COVID-19. Children with COVID-19 had more frequent persistent fever during delta wave and children during the omicron wave had a higher peak fever.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2022

For the extended duration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, reports emerged that mother-to-child transmission rates were low. However, the pandemic protocols including strict isolation, testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and negative pressure isolation remained in Korea. Recently, the guideline for the management of neonates born to mothers with COVID-19 have been revised based on guidelines in other countries. Here, we introduce this newly developed guideline and review the foreign guidelines that were used for reference.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.7
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• pp.328-338
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• 2021

Humanity has been suffering from the global severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic that began late in 2019. In 2020, for the first time in history, new vaccine platforms-including mRNA vaccines and viral vector-based DNA vaccines-have been given emergency use authorization, leading to mass vaccinations. The purpose of this article is to review the currently most widely used coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines, investigate their immunogenicity and efficacy data, and analyze the vaccine safety profiles that have been published, to date.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2022

A small proportion of children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) develop severe pneumonia. We reported the severe COVID-19 pneumonia in children aged <18 years with COVID-19 treated with remdesivir and dexamethasone from August 2021 to November 2021 by a retrospective review of their medical records. Eight children were included (5 males and 3 females). Their median age was 16 years (range: 9 to 17 years) and their median body mass index was 30.5 kg/m² (range: 22.8-38.5 kg/m²). All patients had fever and dyspnea with hypoxia. Chest radiographic findings were variable and included diffuse or multifocal consolidation, nodules, and ground-glass opacities in the lungs. After receiving intravenous remdesivir and dexamethasone, 7 of the 8 children experienced an improvement in their symptoms within 2 days. In our case series, obesity was present in 6 out of 8 children with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.62-72
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• 2023

Purpose: A change is expected in the pattern of respiratory viruses including human coronavirus (HCoV) after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Accordingly, identifying the distribution of respiratory viruses before the COVID-19 outbreak is necessary. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the results of samples of nasal swabs collected from children under aged ≤18 years who were hospitalized at Myongji Hospital, Gyeonggi-do due to acute respiratory infections from 2017 to 2019. Viruses were detected by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: Out of 3,557 total patients, 3,686 viruses were detected with RT-PCR including coinfections. Of the 3,557 patients, 2,797 (78.6%) were confirmed as PCR-positive. Adenovirus and human rhinovirus (hRV) were detected throughout the year, and human enterovirus was most detected during summer. Respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and HCoV were prevalent in winter. In patients with croup, parainfluenza virus was most frequently detected, followed by hRV and HCoV. The PCR positive rate in summer and winter differed significantly. Conclusions: Respiratory virus patterns in northwestern Gyeonggi-do were not much different from previously reported data. The data reported herein regarding respiratory virus epidemiological information before the COVID-19 outbreak can be used for use in comparative studies of respiratory virus patterns after the COVID-19 outbreak.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.86-98
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• 2022

This study explored the agenda of conservative and liberal media in reporting COVID-19, and observed the effects of each media's partisan agenda-setting on the public with the same political orientation. To this end, researchers collected 5,286 articles on COVID-19 from five newspapers, and analyzed the survey data of 1,067 respondents. Next, the researchers extracted main agenda using LDA topic modeling and analyzed the correlation between newspapers' agenda and survey respondents' agenda. As results, 15 topics such as infection, vaccine, and economic crisis appeared as the media agenda, and the difference in major agenda between conservative and liberal media was found. On the other hand, the conservative media exerted an agenda-setting influence not only on the conservatives but also on the liberals, but the liberal media did not have a significant influence on the liberals. This study contributes to the methodological expansion of agenda-setting research by introducing a new way to confirm the effectiveness of agenda-setting by combining topic modeling and survey.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1630-1648
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• 2021

Owing to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry has attracted considerable attention, spurred by the widespread expectation of vaccine development. In this study, we collect relevant topics from news articles related to COVID-19 and explore their links with two South Korean pharmaceutical indices, the Drug and Medicine index of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) Pharmaceutical index. We use generalized Dirichlet-multinomial regression (g-DMR) to reveal the dynamic topic distributions over metadata of index values. The results of our analysis, obtained using g-DMR, reveal that a greater focus on specific news topics has a significant relationship with fluctuations in the indices. We also provide practical and theoretical implications based on this analysis.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.127-145
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• 2022

Vaccine diplomacy is a manifestation of competition for political influence among great powers amidst the Covid-19 pandemic's blatant illustration of ineluctable interdependency across the global community. The reinforcement of trends bolstering global polity construction intensify concomitantly with nationalist populist value and attitude expressions increasing political polarization. The interdependency graphically illustrated in the Cold War-era's mutual assured destruction incentivized competition into indirect competitive intervention in the internal politics of third actors. Indirect international influence contestations included extended, de facto challenge competitions to generate soft power on behalf of the victor, e.g., the space race. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this competition to offer alternative development models while intense domestic political polarization undermines the mobilizational capacities for achieving sustainable development. In contrast to multinational and multiethnic states, nation states have an inherent mobilizational advantage because of the enhanced control capabilities available to the authorities without emphasizing coercion. Control through Gramscian hegemonic mechanisms is more readily feasible in nation states through the greater feasibility of commodification of social relations by states authorities regulating and channeling social competition to encourage social mobility and creativity. The regulation of the so-called private sector serves to manage and contain social competition while channeling it to develop the institutional capacities for control and allocation of developing societal human resources. It enhances developed state control mechanisms and international influence capacities. The appeal of offers of aid and assistance to the so-called developing world becomes ever more urgent amidst Anthropocene crises including its most recent, current Covid-19 pandemic disaster.