• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.79-83
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• 2018

Jejudo has unique geographical and climatologic characteristics compared with other areas in Korea. The aim was to evaluate differences of the nationwide notifiable infectious diseases (NND) occurred in Jejudo, 2011~2018. The source of data was on the Infectious Disease Statistics System operated by Centers for Diseases Control & Prevention in Korea between 1 January 2001 and 30 September 2018. After calculating the proportion of sum of years showing a higher incidence in Jejudo than nationwide divided by sum of comparing years(PSYH), authors defined the infectious diseases for control in Jejudo (IDCJ) with PSYH over 75%. In addition, the infectious diseases showing increasing trends during recent 2 years(2015~2018) were defined as sudden increase Infectious diseases for control (SIDCJ). IDCJ in 2001~2018 included 3 NNDs such as chicken pox, syphilis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The results support main evidences to plan strategies and distribute community resources for control and prevention of NNDs in Jejudo, Korea.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.29-39
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• 2021

Purpose: As the need for a hospital specializing in infectious diseases has increased, construction is being promoted. Hospitals specializing in infectious diseases receive some state subsidies, but in the case of private hospitals, hospital operation efficiency should be considered to prevent cost loss. Therefore, we aim to derive a building plan for a general ward in a hospital specializing in infectious diseases that can be used not only in normal times but also in times of crisis. Methods: In this study, relevant literature review and field interviews were conducted with medical staff working in facilities designated as infectious disease hospitals. Results: The general ward building plan of the hospital specializing in infectious diseases was classified into three categories and presented. 'Spatial composition' for nursing unit and ward zoning, 'Spatial plan' for ward space conversion in normal times and crises, 'Bedroom plan' for effective dimensions and area of the ward. Implications: It can be used as a guideline when designing an infection-facility ward. And it can be a basis for inducing improvements to prevent infection in the ward of existing medical facilities.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.109-116
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to make suggestions for the infectious disease surveillance systems as part of the government's healthcare policy intended to minimize damage by implementing an appropriate and swift crisis management in the event of future infectious disease outbreaks. To that end, this descriptive study analyzes the infectious disease outbreaks and the management and control thereof in Korea and other countries, so as to suggest some approaches to infectious disease surveillance systems applicable to affected regions. The analysis results shed light on the causes of the spread of future infectious diseases over the past years, and the management systems that could possibly deal with the trial and error in the response policy. It seems crucial to roll out appropriate information, training and promotion programs as part of the national disaster response systems to prevent infectious diseases in relation to the roles of multiple relevant government agencies in the event of disasters especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.436-444
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• 2010

Objectives: Infectious diseases are known to be affected by climate change. We investigated if the infectious diseases were related to meteorological factors in Korea. Methods: Scrub typhus, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), leptospirosis, malaria and Vibrio vulnificus sepsis among the National Notifiable Infectious Diseases were selected as the climate change-related infectious diseases. Temperature, relative humidity and precipitation were used as meteorological factors. The study period was from 2001 through 2008. We examined the seasonality of the diseases and those correlations with meteorological factors. We also analyzed the correlations between the incidences of the diseases during the outbreak periods and monthly meteorological factors in the hyper-endemic regions. Results: All of the investigated diseases showed strong seasonality; malaria and V. vulnificus sepsis were prevalent in summer and scrub typhus, HFRS and leptospirosis were prevalent in the autumn. There were significant correlations between the monthly numbers of cases and all the meteorological factors for malaria and V. vulnificus sepsis, but there were no correlation for the other diseases. However, the incidence of scrub typhus in hyper-endemic region during the outbreak period was positively correlated with temperature and humidity during the summer. The incidences of HFRS and leptospirosis had positive correlations with precipitation in November and temperature and humidity in February, respectively. V. vulnificus sepsis showed positive correlations with precipitation in April/May/July. Conclusions: In Korea, the incidences of the infectious diseases were correlated with meteorological factors, and this implies that the incidences could be influenced by climate change.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.287-297
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in preventive health behaviors of school-age children according to their mothers' health beliefs and attitudes toward the prevention of infectious diseases. Methods: This study was conducted with 121 pairs of 4th to 6th grade elementary school children and their mothers from October 13 to October 30, 2020. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, an independent t-test, a one-way ANOVA, Sheffé's test, Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis and a multiple linear regression. Result: The mean and SD of mother's health belief in preventing infectious diseases was 3.58±0.41, the mean and SD of mother's attitude toward preventing infectious diseases was 3.39±0.38, and the mean and SD of late school-age children's preventive health behavior was 3.52±0.37. The multiple linear regression results show that the children's vaccination behavior was influenced by their mothers' perceived benefits in preventing infectious diseases. In addition, the child's vitamin C and vegetable consumption was influenced by the mother's perceived susceptibility in preventing infectious diseases, and the child's mask-wearing behavior was influenced by the mother's perceived seriousness in preventing infectious diseases. Conclusion: In order to improve the health behavior of school-aged children, programs or education are required to enhance the health beliefs and attitudes of their mothers, who were shown to affect the preventive health behavior of their children.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.43-55
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• 2008

Recently, the major viral diseases, Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bronchitis (IB), low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), avian pneumovirus infection (APV), Marek's disease (MD) and infectious bursal disease (IBD), have led to huge economic losses in chicken industry of Korea. To evaluate prevalence of the major viral disease infections in broiler breeder and broiler farms, epidemiological survey has been conducted in Jeonbuk province from 2005 to 2007 by serological ELISA test for APV, PCR for MD, and RT-PCR for ND, IB, LPAI and IBD, respectively. A total of 424 cases was submitted to our laboratory for diagnosis of the major viral disease from broiler breeder and broiler farms in the above period. The diagnosed results were analysed for the detection rate of infections on basis of years, seasons and ages, respectively. This study was showed that the detection rates of ND and APV were considerably high for every years regardless of seasons and ages in both broiler breeder and commercial broiler. In comparison with detection rates of ND and APV, IB and LPAI were lower but detected around 10% for every years. Especially, detection rate of IB was significantly high in commercial broiler than in broiler breeder. Therefore, to minimize economic losses for broiler breeder and broiler farms, it will need for effective countermeasures to decrease detection rate of the viral respiratory diseases. Although the detection rates of MD and IBD were gradually decreased from 2005 to 2007 in both broiler breeder and commercial broiler, it will continually make an effort about disease control for increasing productivity in chicken industry.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.299-302
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• 2009

The incidence of imported malaria has been increasing in Korea. Were viewed data retrospectively to evaluate the epidemiology, clinical features, and outcomes of imported malaria from 1995 to 2007 in a university hospital. All patients diagnosed with imported malaria were included. Imported malaria was defined as a positive smear for malaria that was acquired in a foreign country. A total of 49 patients (mean age, 35.7 year; M: F = 38 : 11)were enrolled. The predominant malarial species was Plasmodium falciparum (73.5%), and the most frequent area of acquisition was Africa (55.1%), followed by Southeast Asia (22.4%) and South Asia (18.4%). Fourteen-patients (30.6%) suffered from severe malaria caused by P. falciparum and 1 patient (2.0%) died of multiorgan failure. Most of the patients were treated with mefloquine (79.2%) or quinine (10.2%); other antimalarial agents had to be given in 13.2% treated with mefloquine and 44.4% with quinine due to adverse drug events (ADEs). P. falciparum was the most common cause of imported malaria, with the majority of cases acquired from Africa, and a significant number of patients had severe malaria. Alternative antimalarial agents with lower rates of ADEs might be considered for effective treatment instead of mefloquine and quinine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2133-2140
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• 2018

Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis. Its pathogenesis is poorly understood owing to the difficulty of establishing viral infection in animal models. Here, post-weaning gnotobiotic pigs were infected with human norovirus genogroup II genotype 4 (HuNoV GII.4) to investigate the pathogenesis and replication of the virus. Three groups of four pigs were infected with $1{\times}10^5$, $1{\times}10^6$, or $1{\times}10^7$ genomic equivalent (GE) copies of HuNoV GII.4. Four pigs were used as negative controls. Blood and rectal swab samples were collected after viral infection, and gross legions were examined after necropsy. Diarrhea was induced in 25% and 75% of pigs infected with $1{\times}10^6$ and $1{\times}10^7$ GE copies, respectively. Viral shedding was detected in 50%, 75%, and 50% of pigs infected with $1{\times}10^5$, $1{\times}10^6$, and $1{\times}10^7$ GE copies, respectively. Viremia was detected in 25% of pigs infected with either $1{\times}10^6$ or $1{\times}10^7$ GE copies. When gross lesions of gastroenteritis were investigated, the ileum walls of the infected pigs were thinner than those of the controls. Villi atrophy and inflammatory cell infiltration were identified in the ileum of each infected pig. Viral capsid was identified in the jejunum, ileum, colon, spleen, and mesenteric lymph node. Virus replication was newly verified in the spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes by detection of negative-sense viral RNA. In conclusion, HuNoV GII.4 could induce acute gastroenteritis and replicate in the extra-intestinal lymphoid tissues in post-weaning gnotobiotic pigs. Therefore, such pigs would be a suitable animal model for studying the pathogenesis and replication of HuNoV.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.658-664
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• 2019

Immunocontraception has been suggested as an optimal alternative to surgical contraception in animal species. Many immunocontraceptive vaccines have been designed to artificially produce antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone-I (GnRH-I) which remove GnRH-I from the vaccinated animals. A deficiency of GnRH-I thereafter leads to a lack of gonadotropins, resulting in immunocontraception. In this study, we initially developed three immunocontraceptive vaccines composed of GnRH-I, GnRH-II, and a GnRH-I and -II (GnRH-I+II) complex, conjugated to the external domain of Salmonella Typhimurium flagellin. As the GnRH-I+II vaccine induced significantly (p < 0.01) higher levels of anti-GnRH-I antibodies than the other two vaccines, we further evaluated its immunocontraceptive effects in male rats. Mean testis weight in rats (n = 6) inoculated twice with the GnRH-I+II vaccine at 2-week intervals was significantly (p < 0.01) lower than in negative control rats at 10 weeks of age. Among the six vaccinated rats, two were non-responders whose testes were not significantly reduced when compared to those of negative control rats. Significantly smaller testis weight (p < 0.001), higher anti-GnRH-I antibody levels (p < 0.001), and lower testosterone levels (p < 0.001) were seen in the remaining four responders compared to the negative control rats at the end of the experiments. Furthermore, seminiferous tubule atrophy and spermatogenesis arrest were found in the testis tissues of responders. Therefore, the newly developed GnRH-I+II vaccine efficiently induced immunocontraception in male rats. This vaccine can potentially also be applied for birth control in other animal species.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.41.1-41.13
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• 2021

Correlation between vaccine reactogenicity and immunogenicity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is unclear. Thus, we investigated to determine whether the reactogenicity after coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination is associated with antibody (Ab) titers and T cell responses. This study was prospective cohort study done with 131 healthcare workers at tertiary center in Seoul, South Korea. The degrees of the local reactions after the 1st and 2nd doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (ChAdOx1) vaccination were significantly associated with the S1-specific IgG Ab titers (p=0.003 and 0.01, respectively) and neutralizing Ab (p=0.04 and 0.10, respectively) in age- and sex-adjusted multivariate analysis, whereas those after the BNT162b2 vaccination did not show significant associations. T cell responses did not show significant associations with the degree of reactogenicity after the ChAdOx1 vaccination or the BNT162b2 vaccination. Thus, high degree of local reactogenicity after the ChAdOx1 vaccine may be used as an indicator of strong humoral immune responses against SARS-CoV-2.