• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제44권4호
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• pp.141-148
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• 2011

Annual epidemics of seasonal influenza occur during autumn and winter in temperate regions and have imposed substantial public health and economic burdens. At the global level, these epidemics cause about 3-5 million severe cases of illness and about 0.25-0.5 million deaths each year. Although annual vaccination is the most effective way to prevent the disease and its severe outcomes, influenza vaccination coverage rates have been at suboptimal levels in many countries. For instance, the coverage rates among the elderly in 20 developed nations in 2008 ranged from 21% to 78% (median 65%). In the U.S., influenza vaccination levels among elderly population appeared to reach a "plateau" of about 70% after the late 1990s, and levels among child populations have remained at less than 50%. In addition, disparities in the coverage rates across subpopulations within a country present another important public health issue. New approaches are needed for countries striving both to improve their overall coverage rates and to eliminate disparities. This review article aims to describe a broad conceptual framework of vaccination, and to illustrate four potential determinants of influenza vaccination based on empirical analyses of U.S. nationally representative populations. These determinants include the ongoing influenza epidemic level, mass media reporting on influenza-related topics, reimbursement rate for providers to administer influenza vaccination, and vaccine supply. It additionally proposes specific policy implications, derived from these empirical analyses, to improve the influenza vaccination coverage rate and associated disparities in the U.S., which could be generalizable to other countries.

• 미생물학회지
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.25-32
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• 2019

Influenza A (H1N1) virus caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009-2010 and still remains in seasonal circulation. Continuous surveillance activities are encouraged in the post pandemic phase to watch over the trend of occurrence every year, this is better to be done by a rapid and sensitive method for its detection. This study was conducted to detect proportions of occurrence of influenza A virus (H1N1) in patients with influenza-like illness. Samples from 500 patients with influenza or influenza-like clinical presentation were tested by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and virus tissue culture. Among the total 500 participants, 193 (38.6%) were females and 307 (61.4%) males. Seventy-one patients (14.2%) were positive for H1N1 virus infection with real-time RT-PCR while 52 (10.4%) were positive by tissue culture. Non-statistically significant relation was found between age and gender with the positivity of H1N1. Sensitivity and specificity of real-time RT-PCR was 98.08% and 95.54%, respectively, in comparison to virus isolation with accuracy 95.8%. This study showed that H1N1 virus was responsible for a good proportion of influenza during the post-pandemic period. Real-time RT-PCR provides rapidity and sensitivity for the detection of influenza A virus (H1N1) compared with virus isolation and thus it is recommended as a diagnostic tool.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제57권2호
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• pp.108-119
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• 2024

Objectives: Abrupt changes in air pollution levels associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak present a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of air pollution on influenza risk, at a time when emission sources were less active and personal hygiene practices were more rigorous. Methods: This time-series study examined the relationship between influenza cases (n=22 874) and air pollutant concentrations from 2018 to 2021, comparing the timeframes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in and around Thailand's Khon Kaen province. Poisson generalized additive modeling was employed to estimate the relative risk of hospitalization for influenza associated with air pollutant levels. Results: Before the COVID-19 outbreak, both the average daily number of influenza hospitalizations and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 ㎛ or less (PM_2.5) concentration exceeded those later observed during the pandemic (p<0.001). In single-pollutant models, a 10 ㎍/m³ increase in PM_2.5 before COVID-19 was significantly associated with increased influenza risk upon exposure to cumulative-day lags, specifically lags 0-5 and 0-6 (p<0.01). After adjustment for co-pollutants, PM_2.5 demonstrated the strongest effects at lags 0 and 4, with elevated risk found across all cumulative-day lags (0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, and 0-6) and significantly greater risk in the winter and summer at lag 0-5 (p<0.01). However, the PM_2.5 level was not significantly associated with influenza risk during the COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusions: Lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic could mitigate the risk of PM_2.5-induced influenza. Effective regulatory actions in the context of COVID-19 may decrease PM_2.5 emissions and improve hygiene practices, thereby reducing influenza hospitalizations.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.170-178
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• 2019

목적: 인플루엔자 예방접종은 인플루엔자 감염을 예방하고 병원 내 전파를 차단할 수 있는 가장 효과적인 방법이다. 본 연구자들은 국내 병원내 직원들의 인플루엔자 예방 접종률의 현황 및 접종률과 연관된 인자들을 살펴보고자 하였다. 방법: 2017-2018 인플루엔자 시즌 전, 경기도 고양시 내 3개 종합 병원의 인플루엔자 예방접종 캠페인 대상인 병원 직원들이 연구에 포함되었다. 연구대상자의 인구학적인 특성 및 직업적 특성을 후향적으로 수집하였다. 결과: 총 7,180명의 병원내 직원 중 6,994명(97%)이 연구에 포함되었으며 전체 예방 접종률은 85%였다. 의료직종 중에서는 간호직군이 92%로 가장 높았고, 의료기술직군(88%), 의사직군(84%), 비의료직군(79%) 순이었다(P<0.001). 비의료직군에서의 접종률은 환자와의 접촉 정도에 비해 서로 상이하였으며, 환자와 접촉이 빈번한 비의료직군의 접종률은 90%로 덜 빈번한 비의료직군의 73%보다 유의하게 높았다(P<0.001). 결론: 2017-2018 인플루엔자 시즌 병원내 직원의 예방접종률은 85%이었다. 이는 기존의 병원내 직원 대상으로 자발적인 예방접종을 진행하는 여러 국가들의 보고들과 비교했을 때 높은 편에 속한다. 병원내 직원의 특성에 따라 예방 접종률은 서로 상이하며, 병원내 직원의 예방접종률을 보다 높이기 위해서는 이러한 요인들을 포함한 다각적인 접근을 고려해야 한다.

• 미생물학회지
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.53-59
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• 2005

인플루엔자바이러스는 거의 매년 겨울철에 유행을 일으키는 급성 호흡기 질환의 주요한 원인 바이러스중의 하나로 막대한 사회 경제적 손실을 가져온다. 본 실험은 2003-2004절기 동안 $38^{\circ}C$이상의 갑작스러운 발열과 더불어 기침 또는 인후통을 보이는 401명의 인플루엔자의사환자(ILI : Influenza-like illness) 검체로부터 124주의 인플루엔자바이러스를 분리하여 형 및 아형 분석과 그에 따른 유행양상을 분석하였다. 인플루엔자 의사환자 연령별 분포를 살펴보면 20-49세의 성인층의 환자수가 $23\%$로 가장 많았으며, 바이러스 분리율은 7-19세의 학령기에서 $50\%$로 가장 높았다. 분리된 인플루엔자바이러스 124주 중 A/H3N2 type는 83주, Type B는 41주였다. 지역별 인플루엔자 의사환자 발생율은 노원구, 서초구, 강남구의 발생율이 타 지역에 비해 비교적 높았으며 바이러스 분리율은 용산구 $66.7\%$, 강남구 $50.0\%$, 노원구 $39.9\%$, 강북구 $36.8\%$ 서초구 $27.8\%$, 동작구 $21.2\%$ 순이었다. 인플루엔자 의사환자의 예방접종현황조사결과 접종을 받았음에도 불구하고 인플루엔자 의사환자로 보고된 경우가 $40\%$였으며, 접종율은 20-49세 성인층이 가장 높았다. 이와 같은 인플루엔자 실험실 표본감시체계 결과의 분석을 통하여 새로운바이러스형 출현을 감시하며, 현행 예방백신의 효과 및 유행양상을 예측하여 국가 인플루엔자 관리대책을 수립하는데 활용하고자 한다.

• 대한미생물학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.9-13
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• 1987

During 31 days (5 week) from December 9th 1985 to January 8th 1986, Influenza B epidemic were observed in Seoul city. Epidemic peak was shown at 52nd week in 1985. The Epidemic associated viruses were determined as B/yamanish/510/84 and B/Ann Arbor/1/86-like strain. From total of 124 specimens of influenza-like illness children virus isolation rate were average 4.0%, much lower than that of influenza A virus isolation experience. In the epidemic influenza B infection were predominantly involved in school age children.

• 셀메드
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.24.1-24.4
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• 2016

The emergence of influenza virus and antigenic drift are potential cause of world-wide pandemic. There are some commercially available drugs in the market to treat influenza. During past decade, however, critical resistances have been raised for biological targets. Because of structural complexity and flexibility of target proteins, applying a computational modeling tool is very beneficial for developing alternative anti-influenza drugs. In this review, we introduced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations approach to reflect full conformational flexibility of proteins during molecular modeling works. Case studies of MD works were summarized for the drug discovery and drug resistance mechanism of anti-influenza pharmaceuticals.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.63-70
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• 2010

Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a newly emerged flu virus that was first detected in April 2009. Unlike the avian influenza (H5N1), this virus has been known to be able to spread from human to human directly. Although it is uncertain how severe this novel H1N1 virus will be in terms of human illness, the illness may be more widespread because most people will not have immunity to it. In this study, we compared the codon usage bias between the novel H1N1 influenza A viruses and other viruses such as H1N1 and H5N1 subtypes to investigate the genomic patterns of novel influenza A (H1N1). Totally, 1,675 nucleotide sequences of the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of influenza A virus, including H1N1 and H5N1 subtypes occurring from 2004 to 2009, were used. As a result, we found that the novel H1N1 influenza A viruses showed the most close correlations with the swine-origin H1N1 subtypes than other H1N1 viruses, in the result from not only the analysis of nucleotide compositions, but also the phylogenetic analysis. Although the genetic sequences of novel H1N1 subtypes were not exactly the same as the other H1N1 subtypes, the HA and NA genes of novel H1N1s showed very similar codon usage patterns with other H1N1 subtypes, especially with the swine-origin H1N1 influenza A viruses. Our findings strongly suggested that those novel H1N1 viruses seemed to be originated from the swine-host H1N1 viruses in terms of the codon usage patterns.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제28권5호
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• pp.809-815
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• 2018

Influenza, which is a highly contagious disease caused by the influenza A virus, continues to be a major health concern worldwide. Although the accurate and early diagnosis of influenza virus infection is important for controlling the spread of this disease and rapidly initiating antiviral therapy, the current influenza diagnostic kits are limited by their low sensitivity. In this study, we developed several new influenza nucleoprotein (NP)-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and compared their sensitivity and specificity of those with commercially available anti-NP mAbs. Three mAbs, designated M24.11, M34.3, and M34.33, exhibited higher reactivities to recombinant NPs and A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (H1N1) viral lysates compared with the commercial mAbs, as assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. M34.3 and M34.33 showed higher reactivities with A/California/04/09 (pandemic H1N1) and A/Philippines/2/82 (H3N2) viral lysates than the commercial mAbs. In contrast, M24.11 had marked reactivity with H3N2 but not with pandemic H1N1. Immunofluorescent confocal microscopy showed that the three mAbs effectively detected the presence of influenza virus in lung tissues of mice infected with A/Puerto Rico/8/1934. These results indicate that the newly developed M34.3 and M34.33 mAbs could be useful for the development of influenza diagnostics.

• 성인간호학회지
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.250-259
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was examined to identify the relationship among knowledge, attitude, and compliance with preventive behavior on influenza A (H1N1) by University students. Methods: The sample consisted of 101 students. The data were collected from August to September 2009 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The mean scores of knowledge ($11.89{\pm}1.39$), attitude ($30.16{\pm}2.87$), and compliance with preventive behavior ($22.35{\pm}3.51$) on influenza A (H1N1) were above the average. The level of knowledge was not significantly different regardless of characteristics. Students' attitude differed according to gender (p<.001), and plan to seasonal influenza vaccination for this year (p=.007). Compliance with preventive behavior was significantly different according to experience of seasonal influenza vaccination during last year (p=.010), experience of obtained information about influenza A (H1N1) (p=.037). Significant correlations were found between knowledge and compliance with preventive behavior (p<.001), attitude and compliance with preventive behavior (p<.001). Knowledge and attitude was a predictor of compliance with preventive behavior (23.4%). Conclusion : These findings indicate that perceived knowledge and attitude may be necessary to improve compliance with preventive behavior on influenza A (H1N1) among university students. The results of the study can be utilized in educational programs about preventing the occurrence of influenza among university students.