• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.131-140
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• 2001

Objectives : During March-May, 2000, a measles outbreak occurred at Youngduk, Korea. This county is divided into two areas with different historical and socioeconomic background. The outbreak occurred in one of these areas. We conducted a comparative epidemiologic study on the two areas in order to evaluate the factors related to the epidemic. Materials and Methods : We selected two groups, grades 3 and 5 in a primary schools in each area. We investigated outbreak-related factors using parent-questionnaires, the vaccination history from the student's health record and the records concerning the recent measles-outbreak from the local health center. Serologic test on measles-IgG and -IgM antibody was done. Results : The infection rate was 31.5% for the epidemic area and 3.7% for non-the epidemic area according to clinical or serological criteria (p<0.001). No difference was seen in the measles vaccination rate, residence at the time of vaccination or past measles infection history between the two areas. In the epidemic area, the attack rate for the 4-6 year-old MMR booster group(20.5%) was higher than the non-booster group(32.4%), but was not found significantly. Vaccine efficacy was 29.6% in the epidemic area and 87.0% in the non-epidemic area (p<0.001). The IgG level and positive rate were significantly different between the two areas (median 10727 IU/ml, 98.9% in epidemic area; median 346 IU/ml, 85.9% in the non-epidemic area, p<0.001). However, the IgG level and positive rate between the measles-cases and non-cases were not significantly different. Conclusions : This outbreak took place in mostly vaccinated children. These results suggest that a reduction of herd immunity for immunity failure after vaccination may be one of the feasible factors related to the outbreak pattern in the two areas. The results of the IgG level and positive rate suggest that re-establishment of a normal value for IgG level and of a qualitative method for IgG are needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.3 s.47
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• pp.411-423
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• 1994

The survey methods for confirming the epidemicity and identifying the possible causes of the cancer epidemic can be different from those for infectious diseases. The procedure for confirming whether the outbreak is epidemic or not is quite different. Household survey for identifying cancer cases and residents actually living at the area should be done. Hospital survey for medical record review should be performed to identify all cancer cases among the residents of the outbreak area and confirmig the final diagnoses of the cancer cases. Comparing the level of cancer incidence or mortality with other areas can be done by using Poisson distribution, or calculating SIR (Standard Incidence Ratio) from cumulative incidence rates. Case-control study can be conducted to identify the etiologic, factors of the cancer epidemic and to establish strategy for preventing further recurrence of the outbreak.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.809-816
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• 1997

In this presented study, we established a method for diagnosis of porcine epidemic diarrhea(PED) by in situ hybridization(ISH), which made distinct progress in diagnostic pathology. We also carried out the retrospective diagnosis through ISH to assume the exact time of the first outbreak and incidence of PED in Korea. The outbreak of PED in Korea reported in 1992. However, since the end of 1980's, some researches of pig-industry have already suspected the outbreak of PED, not transmissible gastroenteritis(TGE). In this experiment, we performed the ISH using 80 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues of porcine intestine which were requests for pathological diagnosis from 63 farms whose primary sign was diarrhea from 1984 to 1991. We prepared biotinylated cDNA probe(492base pairs) for ISH by nick translation method and carried out the ISH, using $Microprobe^{TM}$ capillary action system(Fisher $Biotech^R$). We detected PED virus in intestinal mucosa of 2 cases in 1992, 1 case in 1988, and 1 case in 1987. As a result, we assume that the outbreak of PED in Korea have already started since 1987.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.161-168
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• 2015

The epidemic is seemed to be extremely difficult for accurate predictions. The new models have been suggested that show quite different results. The basic reproductive number of epidemic for consequent time intervals are estimated based on stochastic processes. In this paper, we proposed a transmission distribution estimation for Ebola virus disease epidemic model. This estimation can be easier to obtain in real time which is useful for informing an appropriate public health response to the outbreak. Finally, we implement our proposed method with data from Guinea Ebola disease outbreak.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-43
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• 1972

1. In order to investigate the epidemic outbreak of rice blast disease on the resistant variety Kwankon in 1969, this investigation was undertaken as a basis for breeding resistant varieties. 2. The 16 isolates collected from Kyunggi area were inoculated at the 3-4 leaf stage on 12 Japanese differential varieties used for identifying races under greenhouse conditions. Out of 16 isolates 15 were identified as C race group and one as N race group. Of the 15 rates, nine were C-8, two were C-7 and two were C-1. Of the remaining two isolates, one was similar to C-1, and the other was similar to C-5. 3. It is concluded that the epidemic in the resistant variety 'Kwanok' was due to the occurrence of the C race group, which can infect the Chinese type varieties.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aims to examine how elementary, middle and high school health teachers in Gyeonggi province react to infectious disease like MERS. Methods: This is a descriptive study using a convenience sample of 1,267 school health teachers. Results: When MERS was an epidemic, school health teachers who took the 'leading' role were 92.4%. A school heath teacher's countermeasures against infectious diseases showed a high score during MERS outbreak (3.81) compared to regular days (3.59). Conclusion: Based on such results, it has been determined that schools need to keep two types of procedures manual, such as 'countermeasures on a regular basis' and 'countermeasures in the event of a pandemic disease outbreak' manual in the staff offices so that anyone can view them at any time. It is necessary to prepare regulations to strengthen their authority so that school health teachers can take the role of control tower, in a professional capacity, when communicable disease is spreading. In order to prevent any confusion and chaos, there should be a unitary reporting system at each school when dealing with an epidemic. School health teachers need to get continuous training to reinforce their abilities to react to communicable diseases.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.271-280
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• 2014

Foot-and-mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly infectious and fatal viral livestock disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals domestic and wild and the FMD outbreak in Korea in 2010/2011 was a disastrous incident for the country and the economy. Thus, efforts at the national level are put to prevent foot-and-mouth disease and to reduce the damage in the case of outbreak. As one of these efforts, it is useful to study the spread of the disease by using probabilistic model. In fact, after the FMD epidemic in the UK occurred in 2001, many studies have been carried on the spread of the disease using a variety of stochastic models as an effort to prepare future outbreak of FMD. However, for the FMD outbreak in Korea occurred in 2010/2011, there are few study by utilizing probabilistic model. This paper assumes a stochastic spatial-temporal susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) epidemic model for the 2010/2011 FMD outbreak to understand spread of the disease. Since data on infections of FMD disease during 2010/2011 outbreak of Aniaml and Plant Quarantine Agency and on the livestock farms from the nationwide census in 2011 of Statistics Korea do not have detail informations on address or missing values, we generate detail information on address by randomly allocating farms within corresponding Si/Gun area. The kernel function is estimated using the infection data and by using simulations, the susceptibility and transmission of the spatial-temporal stochastic SIR models are determined.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.309-317
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• 2009

The present study describes an investigation on an epidemic of Tuberculosis (TB) which has been occurred among dairy cattle farms in Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do since 2007. The investigation was performed in three ways as follows: 1. Collecting information about bovine TB outbreaks using investigation reports, an on-the-spot and tracing-back investigations; 2. Analyzing the outbreak pattern; 3. Establishing hypothesis and performing statistical analysis on potential risk factors. In the early 2000s, TB outbreaks were sporadically reported in beef cattle, and only a small number ($1{\sim}2$) of reactors was confirmed in each of outbreak farms. The number of TB outbreaks has been suddenly increased from 2007, mainly in dairy cattle farms. And these outbreaks were temporarily clustered during the period, from March 2007 to April 2009 (relative risk, RR = 13.7, p < 0.001). And two spatial clusters of which radiuses were 0.3 km (RR = 6.9, p < 0.001) and 0.9 km (RR = 3.6, p < 0.01). The analysis to find risk factors was performed on 99 dairy farms (21 outbreaks), which are located in the most seriously affected village during 2007-2009. Middleman (odds ratio, OR = 47.4, p < 0.05) and raw milk collecting system (OR = 6.9, p < 0.05) were recognized as with the highest association. Considering the fact that all the outbreak farms except one had their own manure composting tank, it might be that the manure containing pathogen was leaked from tank and transmitted to other farms by fomites such as middleman or raw milk collecting system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.273-287
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• 2015

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the epidemic disease including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) on the usage of public libraries. Such disease yields anxiety throughout the nation and discourages social activities in general. 18,711,453 records from 303 public libraries were examined with "big data retrieval & analysis platform for public libraries" located in Sejong National Library. The results are as follows. First, in 2015, when MERS was prevalent, the daily mean of books checked out was 64,645.05, showing decrease of 6,300 per day compared to that of 2014. Second, in 2014, the daily mean of books checked out from July 5th to August 19th was greater than that of from April 4th to May 19th and that of from May 20th to July 4th, implying the impact of summer vacation on the increase in books checked out in public libraries. Third, in 2015, the daily mean of books checked out from July 5th was greater than during MERS outbreak(from May 20th to July 4th), while it did not show statistically significant difference with that of before the outbreak. Fourth, the daily mean of books checked out did not show statistically significant difference between 2014 and 2015 before and during the outbreak, while it showed statistically significant difference between 2014 and 2015 after the epidemic period. The results indicate that MERS and the anxiety it brought nationwide had an impact on the daily mean of books checked out in public libraries after the epidemic period rather than during the outbreak.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.277-279
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• 2015

Contact monitoring is an essential component of the public health response to a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, and is required for an effective quarantine to contain the epidemic. The timeliness of a quarantine is associated with its effectiveness. This paper provides a conceptual framework to describe the process of contact monitoring, and proposes a new measure called the "timely quarantined proportion" as a tool to assess the adequacy of a public health response.