• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.489-500
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• 2011

Compared to the past decades, in recent decades, environmental and hygienic conditions in the Republic of Korea have improved along with socioeconomic developments, and the incidence of most infectious diseases, especially vaccine-preventable diseases, has greatly decreased due to active immunization with the developed level of health care. However, the incidence of some diseases has been increasing, and new diseases have been emerging. To cope with such changes actively, the government put the "Law for Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases" into effect; this law was entirely revised on December 30, 2010. In this report, I review the past and recent status of infectious diseases in the Republic of Korea, following the introduction of this law, on the basis of data in the "National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System", which had been accumulated between the years 1960 and 2010.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to determine the issues of supplementation and improvement to prepare for the outbreak of new infectious diseases such as new variants of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to guide work for a strategic new response to infectious disease. Public officials of Jeju Special Self-governing Province and health personnel responding to COVID-19, working at six public health centers in Jeju-do region were administered a survey about additional preparations to be made in the future, based on the period when COVID-19 was treated legally as a first-class infectious disease. Frequency analysis was conducted on the collected data. The Likert 5-point scale and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the scores for effective response to emerging infectious diseases according to demographics. Among the important factors identified for effective response to new infectious diseases, 'facilitation of cooperation with public institutions' and 'facilitation of cooperation with private institutions' had the highest scores. In the future, when a patient presents with a new infectious disease, the step that needs to be supplemented in each phase of the public health center's response is 'immediate response team operation'. Further, public health centers responded that 'expansion of dedicated personnel related to infectious diseases' needs to be improved to respond to new infectious diseases. Along with the results of this study, considering the difficulties experienced by health personnel responding to new infectious diseases in preparation for future outbreaks of new infectious diseases, and to respond effectively, detailed and clear guidelines for responding to quarantine of patients of new infectious diseases will be needed.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.51-57
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• 2015

Vaccines are the most effective and cost-efficient method for preventing diseases caused by infectious pathogens. Despite the great success of vaccines, development of safe and strong vaccines is still required for emerging new pathogens, re-emerging old pathogens, and in order to improve the inadequate protection conferred by existing vaccines. One of the most important strategies for the development of effective new vaccines is the selection and usage of a suitable adjuvant. Immunologic adjuvants are essential for enhancing vaccine potency by improvement of the humoral and/or cell-mediated immune response to vaccine antigens. Thus, formulation of vaccines with appropriate adjuvants is an attractive approach towards eliciting protective and long-lasting immunity in humans. However, only a limited number of adjuvants is licensed for human vaccines due to concerns about safety and toxicity. We summarize current knowledge about the potential benefits of adjuvants, the characteristics of adjuvants and the mechanisms of adjuvants in human vaccines. Adjuvants have diverse modes of action and should be selected for use on the basis of the type of immune response that is desired for a particular vaccine. Better understanding of current adjuvants will help exploring new adjuvant formulations and facilitate rational design of vaccines against infectious diseases.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제11권6호
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• pp.309-323
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• 2011

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of naturally occurring small non-coding RNAs of about 22 nucleotides that have recently emerged as important regulators of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Recent studies provided clear evidence that microRNAs are abundant in the lung, liver and kidney and modulate a diverse spectrum of their functions. Moreover, a large number of studies have reported links between alterations of miRNA homeostasis and pathological conditions such as infectious diseases, sickle cell disease and endometrium diseases as well as lung, liver and kidney diseases. As a consequence of extensive participation of miRNAs in normal functions, alteration and/or abnormalities in miRNAs should have importance in human diseases. Beside their important roles in patterning and development, miRNAs also orchestrated responses to pathogen infections. Particularly, emerging evidence indicates that viruses use their own miRNAs to manipulate both cellular and viral gene expression. Furthermore, viral infection can exert a profound impact on the host cellular miRNA expression profile, and several RNA viruses have been reported to interact directly with cellular miRNAs and/or to use these miRNAs to augment their replication potential. Here I briefly summarize the newly discovered roles of miRNAs in various human diseases including infectious diseases, sickle cell disease and enodmetrium diseases as well as lung, liver and kidney diseases.

• 산업융합연구
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.35-40
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• 2021

본 연구는 신종감염병에 대한 텍스트 데이터를 수집하고, 이를 분석하여 신종감염병에서 중요한 요인을 도출하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 네이버 뉴스 데이터베이스의 기사를 직접 크롤링하고, 이를 전처리 하여, 데이터 분석에 활용하였다. 또한 빅카인즈를 활용하여 추가적인 분석을 실시하였다. 우선순위 분석결과, 코로나, 전염병, 방역, 백신, 발생, 바이러스, 감염, 개발 순으로 그 중요도가 나타났다. 근접중심성 분석 결과 정부, 사망, 계획 순으로 그 중요도가 나타났으며, 빅카인즈 분석결과는 코로나 19, 질병관리 본부 등이 중요한 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과를 토대로 신종감염병에 대한 대국민 인식 제고 및 방역, 백신 및 치료제 개발 등에 정부의 정책적인 지원이 필요하다고 할 수 있다.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.260-268
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• 2023

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.373-378
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• 2005

Influenza virus has a unique characteristics of annual epidemics of acute respiratory disease with attack rate of 10%-30% of the population. It is also the classical emerging infectious disease causing global pandemics when new antigenic shift occur. This antigenic shift is the key to its ability to evoke periodic pandemics, and it has caused at least 3 pandemics in 20th century. I reviewed these 3 pandemics in their natural courses and the epidemiology of the recent emerging influenza A viruses, especially the H5 and H7 subtypes. I descr ibed the epidemics of these vi ruses in human population and why we should be prepared to these viruses.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.1-15
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• 2010

Progress in the development of DNA vaccines and their delivery strategies has been made since their initial concept as a next generation vaccine. Since DNA vaccine includes non-infectious DNA parts of pathogens, it can't cause disease yet it closely mimic the natural process of infection and immune responses. Despite their early promising results of controlling infectious diseases and cancer in small animal models, DNA vaccines failed to display a level of immunogenicity required for combating these diseases in humans, possibly due to their lower protein expression levels. However, increasing evidence has shown that DNA vaccines are clinically well-tolerated and safe. Furthermore, one notable advantage of DNA vaccines includes convenient utilities of plasmid DNAs coding for antigens. For instance, any emerging pathogens could be prevented easily and timely by allowing the simple exchange of antigen-encoding genes. In this review, newly developed DNA vaccine strategies, including electroporation, which has emerged as a potent method for DNA delivery, targeting infectious diseases and cancer will be discussed with a focus on any on-going DNA vaccine trials or progress made pre-clinically and in clinics.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.1-17
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• 2016

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in South Korea in 2015 has drawn public attention regarding the legal regulation of infectious disease control in Korea. This paper discusses the interpretive and legislative concerns regarding the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act, its ordinance and enforcement regulations, as well as public statements from the relevant administrative agency. Future improvements are also proposed.

• 한국지리정보학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.18-29
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• 2022

본 연구의 목적은 2020년 1월부터 8월까지 발생한 COVID-19 감염증 발생의 공간적 확산의 패턴을 파악하고 영향요인을 추정하고자 하는 것이다. 우리나라 시·군·구별 COVID-19 확진자를 대상으로 탐색적 공간자료분석과 공간회귀모형을 활용하여 분석하였다. 분석의 결과 COVID-19는 기존에 논의되던 감염병 출현의 요인이었던 숙주와 환경요인이 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타나지 않았으며 공간적으로 인접한 지역과의 관계가 높게 나타났다. 특히 신종 감염병인 4군 감염병의 발생 패턴과 밀접한 관련이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이 연구의 결과는 COVID-19가 새로운 감염병임에도 불구하고 기존에 발생하였던 신종 감염병의 발생과 전혀 다른 패턴이 아니라는 점을 보여준다. 이는 신종 감염병을 효과적으로 통제하기 위해서 과거 새로운 감염병이 출현하였던 공간의 특성을 지속적으로 관리해야 함을 의미한다.