• 의료법학
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.3-44
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• 2022

2020. 2.경 대한민국에서 코로나19 감염증의 대유행이 시작될 당시 문제가 되었던 대구 지역 A종교단체의 역학조사 방해 사건을 중심으로 면밀히 검토한 결과, 역학조사관이 특정 단체에게 명단 제출을 요구하였을 때, 이에 불응하거나 편집된 누락 명단을 제출한 행위에 대하여 역학조사에 해당하지 아니한다는 취지로 선고된 사례가 있는 반면, B열방센터 행사 출입자명단 미제출 사건의 경우 '출입자 명단' 등을 요구받았음에도 정당한 이유 없이 거부한 사실에 대하여 '출입자 명단의 제공은 역학조사에 수반되는 역학조사 간의 연결 과정을 형성하는 핵심적 사실행위로, 이를 거부하는 것도 역학조사 거부, 방해행위에 해당'하므로 적법하게 명단을 요구할 수 있어 처벌이 가능하다는 사례도 있다. 교인명단 제출요구가 역학조사에 해당하는지 여부와 관계없이 교인명단 제출 거부 또는 누락 행위가 곧 역학조사 거부·방해행위에 해당하는 경우도 있는데, 역학조사와 직접 관련성, 역학조사를 위한 것임이 외부적으로 표시되어 인식되었는지 여부, 명단의 역학조사 외의 목적으로 전용될 가능성 등을 종합적으로 고려하여 역학조사에 수반되는 사실행위를 방해함으로써 결과적으로 역학조사가 거부 내지 방해되는 결과가 발생한 경우에는 역학조사 방해가 된다는 하급심 판결의 논리가 설득력이 있다. 역학조사 결과 확인된 각 감염병환자등이나 접촉자 등에 대해 설문조사나 인체검체 채취 및 시험과 같은 역학조사가 실시되지만, 개별적인 사람에 대해 실시되는 역학조사가 서로 독립하여 존재할 수 없으며 역학조사의 연결 과정을 확인하고 추적하는 과정이 역학조사에 필수적으로 수반되며 이러한 연결고리를 확인하는 과정을 누군가 고의로 방해하거나 거부하게 되면, 역학조사가 직접적이고 현실적으로, 광범위하게 방해되는 결과가 발생하기 때문이다. 이 글에서는 주로 ① 감염병예방법상 역학조사와 정보 제공 요청은 차이점이 있으나 정보 제공 요청의 경우에도 역학조사에 해당되는 영역이 있다는 점, ② 코로나19의 의학적 특성과 역학조사의 연속성을 감안하면 역학조사관의 명단요구 행위가 역학조사에 해당할 여지가 있다는 점, ③ 특정한 경우에는 역학조사 방해죄가 위계공무집행방해에 해당할 수 있다는 점, ④ 2020. 9. 29.부터 감염병예법상 정보제공요청을 거부하는 경우에 징역형 또는 벌금형의 처벌규정이 신설되어 운용되고 있다는 점 등을 지적하여, 향후 감염병예방법의 적용 및 역학조사 실무 운용에 있어 도움이 되고자 한다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제56권5호
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• pp.481-484
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• 2023

Epidemiological models, also known as host-agent-vector-environment models, are utilized in public health to gain insights into disease occurrence and to formulate intervention strategies. In this paper, we propose an epidemiological model that incorporates both conventional measures and tobacco endgame policies. Our model suggests that conventional measures focus on relationships among agent-vector-host-environment components, whereas endgame policies inherently aim to change or eliminate those components at a fundamental level. We also found that the vector (tobacco industry) and environment (physical and social surroundings) components were insufficiently researched or controlled by both conventional measures and tobacco endgame policies. The use of an epidemiological model for tobacco control and the tobacco endgame is recommended to identify areas that require greater effort and to develop effective intervention measures.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제17권9호
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• pp.2550-2572
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• 2023

Epidemiological survey is an important means for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Due to the particularity of the epidemic survey, 1) epidemiological survey in epidemic prevention and control has a wide range of people involved, a large number of data collected, strong requirements for information disclosure and high timeliness of data processing; 2) the epidemiological survey data need to be disclosed at different institutions and the use of data has different permission requirements. As a result, it easily causes personal privacy disclosure. Therefore, traditional access control technologies are unsuitable for the privacy protection of epidemiological survey data. In view of these situations, we propose a black box-assisted fine-grained hierarchical access control scheme for epidemiological survey data. Firstly, a black box-assisted multi-attribute authority management mechanism without a trusted center is established to avoid authority deception. Meanwhile, the establishment of a master key-free system not only reduces the storage load but also prevents the risk of master key disclosure. Secondly, a sensitivity classification method is proposed according to the confidentiality degree of the institution to which the data belong and the importance of the data properties to set fine-grained access permission. Thirdly, a hierarchical authorization algorithm combined with data sensitivity and hierarchical attribute-based encryption (ABE) technology is proposed to achieve hierarchical access control of epidemiological survey data. Efficiency analysis and experiments show that the scheme meets the security requirements of privacy protection and key management in epidemiological survey.

• 한국간호교육학회지
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• 제28권4호
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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.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.253-262
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• 2018

Objectives: We reviewed digital epidemiological studies to characterize how researchers are using digital data by topic domain, study purpose, data source, and analytic method. Methods: We reviewed research articles published within the last decade that used digital data to answer epidemiological research questions. Data were abstracted from these articles using a data collection tool that we developed. Finally, we summarized the characteristics of the digital epidemiological studies. Results: We identified six main topic domains: infectious diseases (58.7%), non-communicable diseases (29.4%), mental health and substance use (8.3%), general population behavior (4.6%), environmental, dietary, and lifestyle (4.6%), and vital status (0.9%). We identified four categories for the study purpose: description (22.9%), exploration (34.9%), explanation (27.5%), and prediction and control (14.7%). We identified eight categories for the data sources: web search query (52.3%), social media posts (31.2%), web portal posts (11.9%), webpage access logs (7.3%), images (7.3%), mobile phone network data (1.8%), global positioning system data (1.8%), and others (2.8%). Of these, 50.5% used correlation analyses, 41.3% regression analyses, 25.6% machine learning, and 19.3% descriptive analyses. Conclusions: Digital data collected for non-epidemiological purposes are being used to study health phenomena in a variety of topic domains. Digital epidemiology requires access to large datasets and advanced analytics. Ensuring open access is clearly at odds with the desire to have as little personal data as possible in these large datasets to protect privacy. Establishment of data cooperatives with restricted access may be a solution to this dilemma.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.138-150
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• 2022

Background: Epidemiology is a fundamental study of public health, including environmental health, since the features and causes of diseases discovered through epidemiology provide crucial information for developing successful disease prevention strategies. Objectives: This paper tried to define the role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health, summarize examples of epidemiological studies with regard to selected environmental health events in South Korea, and address important issues that should be considered when conducting epidemiological research in the future. Methods: Epidemiological studies of selected environmental health events were reviewed and summarized in terms of their contribution to environmental health in South Korea. Based on the information, important issues were suggested for future epidemiological studies in environmental health. Results: The role and function of epidemiologic research in the field of environmental health includes the systematic description of the health effects caused by environmental exposure, verification of the causal relationship between environmental exposure and health effects, and provision of background data for conducting prevention strategies and developing policies. A number of epidemiological studies have contributed to characterizing and assessing the environmental risks involved in a series of environmental health events in South Korea. Conclusions: Important issues for future epidemiological studies may include health effects from chronic low-level environmental exposure, application of analytical epidemiology to elucidate causal relationships, use of exposure/disease/susceptibility biomarkers, accurate reconstruction of past exposure status, cohort recruitment and long-term follow-up, and in-advance surveillance of diseases with environmental causes.

• 한국수산과학회지
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.838-844
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• 2016

In this study, epidemiological cut-off values were estimated for 44 Photobacterium damselae isolates, since clinical breakpoints have not been established for this pathogenic bacterium. The susceptibility of the isolates to 10 antibiotics was evaluated using internationally standardized disc diffusion protocols. Normalized resistance interpretation was used to generate statistically valid epidemiological cut-off values for the susceptibility data. There were not enough strains exhibiting full sensitivity to ampicillin and amoxicillin to allow analysis of these antibiotics. Because there were only a marginally sufficient number of strains exhibiting full sensitivity to oxytetracycline, the cut-off value generated provided only a provisional estimate. The valid wild-type cut-off values were <13, 13, 9, 22, 25, 27, and 28 mm for gentamicin, cephalexin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, flumequine, florfenicol, and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, respectively. The application of these cut-off values should greatly facilitate the rational selection of antibiotics for use in commercial fish farms.

• 한국정보시스템학회지:정보시스템연구
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.123-135
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• 2020

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the development process and the effectiveness of the EISS (epidemiological investigation support system), which prevents the spread of infectious diseases like a novel corona virus disease, COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This study identified the existing epidemiological support system for MERS through prior research and studied the case of the development of a newly developed epidemiological support system based on cloud computing infrastructure for COVID-19 through inter-ministerial collaboration in 2020. Findings The outbreak of COVID-19 drove the Korean Government began the development of the EISS with private companies. This system played a significant role in flattening the spread of infection during several waves in which the number of confirmed cases increased rapidly in Korea, However, we need to be careful in handling confirmed patients' private data affecting their privacy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제53권2호
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• pp.67-69
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• 2020

Controversy remains over whether the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus may have infectivity during the incubation period before the onset of symptoms. The author had the opportunity to examine the infectivity of COVID-19 during the incubation period by conducting an epidemiological survey on a confirmed patient who had visited Jeju Island during the incubation period. The epidemiological findings support the claim that the COVID-19 virus does not have infectivity during the incubation period.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• 제28권5_6호
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• pp.1359-1378
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• 2010

The effect of impulse in the ecological models makes them more realistic. Recently, the eco-epidemiological models have become an important field of study from the both mathematical and ecological view points. In this article, we consider some eco-epidemiological systems under the influence of impulsive force. A set of sufficient conditions for the permanence of the system are derived. Stability of the trivial solution and at least one strictly positive periodic solution are obtained. Numerical examples are given in support to our analytical findings. Finally, a short discussion concludes the paper.