• 한국학교보건학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.150-157
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to survey male high school students on their MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)-related knowledge, risk perception, and health behaviors and to identify the factors affecting health behaviors during the MERS outbreak in Korea. Methods: The subjects in this study were 144 students in a male high school. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires in July, 2015. The collected data were analyzed by ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and multiple regression using SPSS/WIN 21.0. Results: The proportion of correct answers to questions testing MERS-related knowledge was 71.6% among male high school students; their health behaviors were rated at 48.9%; and their risk perception rate was 1.8 out of 4. There was a positive correlation between knowledge, risk perception, and health behaviors. Knowledge and risk perception explained 15.1% of the variance in health behaviors. Conclusion: To improve students' health behaviors, their risk perception and knowledge over MERS should be strengthened. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and implement efficient and feasible MERS education programs for high school students.

• 의학교육논단
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.99-105
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to inquire into the knowledge of medical students on the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and evaluate whether infection prevention education impacts students' level of knowledge and individual hygiene practices. This study also investigated the route by which medical students obtain disease-related information. The study involved a survey conducted in August of 2015 at two medical schools in Busan. In the first year to fourth year, a total of 345 students are enrolled (111 students in A school and 234 students in B school). Before the study was carried out, university A performed infection prevention education related to MERS, but B did not. We used self-developed questionnaires to survey the demographic characteristics, routes of acquisition of MERS information, degree of knowledge of MERS, educational satisfaction, and personal hygiene practices before and after education. Knowledge level differences according to gender and year in school were not statistically significant. Students obtained their information about MERS from various news media sources and the Internet, and through social network sites. Students practiced sanitary control behaviors in an average of 2.2 manners (standard deviation=0.95). The level of knowledge of MERS revealed a positive correlation with the frequency and total numbers of personal hygiene practices. This finding suggests that the infection prevention education program played a role in knowledge acquisition and personal hygiene practices for the medical students. In order to provide accurate and reliable knowledge of disease and preventive health behavior to medical students, continuous and well-planned education programs are necessary.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.41.1-41.16
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• 2022

The human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 has chemotactic and modulatory activities in various immune cells, including dendritic cells. Because of its characteristics, LL-37 can be considered an adjuvant for vaccine development. In this study, we confirmed the possible adjuvant activity of LL-37 in mucosal vaccine development against Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) by means of intranasal immunization in C57BL/6 and human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4)-transgenic (hDPP4-Tg) mice. Intranasal immunization using the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of MERS-CoV spike protein (S-RBD) recombined with LL-37 (S-RBD-LL-37) induced an efficient mucosal IgA and systemic IgG response with virus-neutralizing activity, compared with S-RBD. Ag-specific CTL stimulation was also efficiently induced in the lungs of mice that had been intranasally immunized with S-RBD-LL-37, compared with S-RBD. Importantly, intranasal immunization of hDPP4-Tg mice with S-RBD-LL-37 led to reduced immune cell infiltration into the lungs after infection with MERS-CoV. Finally, intranasal immunization of hDPP4-Tg mice with S-RBD-LL-37 led to enhanced protective efficacy, with increased survival and reduced body weight loss after challenge infection with MERS-CoV. Collectively, these results suggest that S-RBD-LL-37 is an effective intranasal vaccine candidate molecule against MERS-CoV infection.

• 약학회지
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• 제59권6호
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• pp.245-250
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• 2015

Middle East respiratory syndrome - coronavirus infection has posed substantial threat to public health with extremely high mortality rate in 2015. Although there are no approved novel medications for coronavirus, several antiviral agents such as ribavirin and interferon have been tried to MERS patients according to the in-vitro inhibitory effect, therapeutic effect on the animal model and experience from the severe acute respiratory syndrome - coronavirus infection. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical evidence of the antiviral treatment for MERS-CoV infection. After systematically searching the medical literature databases, I found five studies described the clinical efficacy of antiviral treatment on MERS patients. All of them were about the combination therapy of ribavirin and interferon (IFN). Two of them were retrospective cohort studies with quality of evidence (QOE) II and the others were observational study and case reports with QOE III. As a result of critical appraisal, it is concluded that none of those studies represented confirmatory clinical evidence of the efficacy of ribavirin and interferon combination therapy on MERS patients. Although Omrani et al. represented that ribavirin and IFN treatment had significantly improved survival at 14 days, it was not enough time to conclude the effect.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.63-66
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• 2015

• 시큐리티연구
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• 제52호
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• pp.145-162
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• 2017

2015년 대한민국은 중동호흡기증후군(Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; MERS; 메르스) 유행으로 큰 사회적 문제를 겪었다. 한국 정부는 그 대처 과정에서 한국정부의 재난대응체제의 문제점을 드러내며 많은 비판을 받은 바 있다. 국가위기관리와 감염병 대응체계와 관련하여 이와 비근한 외국의 사례로 1999년부터 시작된 미국의 웨스트 나일 바이러스(West Nile Virus; WNV) 사태가 있다. 이때 미 오리건(Oregon) 주(州)는 주정부와 지방 정부 및 관련 기관들 간의 긴밀한 협업을 통해 효과적으로 WNV 사태에 대처하여 위기관리의 모범적인 사례로 간주되고 있다. 이 논문에서는 한국의 메르스 사태와 미국 오리건 주의 웨스트 나일 바이러스 사태의 사례들을 정리 비교하여 정부간 조직간 협업과 정보공유를 중심으로 국가위기 관리 및 감염병 대응체계에 대한 함의점을 찾고자 하였다. 사례비교의 결과 컨트롤 타워의 역할, 정보공유 및 공개의 중요성, 기존 시스템과 사회 네트워크의 활용, 지속가능한 정부간 협업이라는 네 가지 함의점을 도출할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제29권8호
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• pp.1316-1323
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• 2019

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging coronavirus which is zoonotic from bats and camels. Its infection in humans can be fatal especially in patients with preexisting conditions due to smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Among the 25 proteins encoded by MERS-CoV, 5 accessory proteins seem to be involved in viral evasion of the host immune responses. Here we report that ORF4a, ORF4b, and ORF8b proteins, alone or in combination, effectively antagonize nuclear factor kappa B ($NF-{\kappa}B$) activation. Interestingly, the inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ by MERS-CoV accessory proteins was mostly at the level of pattern recognition receptors: melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5). ORF4a and ORF4b additively inhibit MDA5-mediated activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ while that of retinoic acid-inducible gene 1 (RIG-I) is largely not perturbed. Of note, ORF8b was found to be a novel antagonist of MDA5-mediated $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation. In addition, ORF8b also strongly inhibits Tank-binding kinase 1 (TBK1)-mediated induction of $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling. Taken together, MERS-CoV accessory proteins are involved in viral escape of $NF-{\kappa}B$-mediated antiviral immune responses.

• 정보관리학회지
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.273-287
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• 2015

본 연구는 국민들에게 불안감을 야기하고 전반적인 사회활동을 위축시키는 메르스와 같은 질병의 유행이 공공도서관의 이용에 어떠한 영향을 주는지 알아보고자 하였다. 이를 위해 국립세종도서관에 위치하고 있는 "공공도서관 빅데이터 수집 및 분석 플랫폼"을 통해 전국 303개 공공도서관에서 수집된 18,711,453건의 대출기록을 분석하였다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 메르스가 유행했던 2015년도는 64,645.05권으로 2014년보다 하루 평균 6,300권 가량 대출책수가 감소하였다. 둘째, 2014년의 경우 7월 5일부터 8월 19일까지의 일평균 대출책수가 4월 4일부터 5월 19일까지와 5월 20일부터 7월 4일까지보다 많은 것으로 나타났다. 이는 학생들의 여름방학이 공공도서관의 대출책수 증가에 영향을 주었을 것으로 파악할 수 있다. 셋째, 메르스가 발생했던 2015년의 경우 메르스 유행 후 기간의 일평균 대출책수가 메르스 유행기간인 5월 20일부터 7월 4일까지보다 많은 것으로 나타났으나 메르스 유행 전 기간과는 유의한 차이가 존재하지 않았다. 넷째, 2014년과 2015년의 메르스 유행 전 기간의 일평균 대출책수와 2014년과 2015년의 메르스 유행 기간의 일평균 대출책수에는 유의한 차이가 없었으나, 2014년과 2015년의 메르스 유행 후 기간의 일평균 대출책수에서는 유의한 차이가 있었다. 연구 결과 국민들에게 불안감을 가져다 준 메르스는 질병의 유행 기간 보다는 오히려 유행 후 기간 동안 공공도서관의 일평균 대출책수에 영향을 주었음을 확인할 수 있었다.

• 대한불안의학회지
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

Objective : The objective of this study is to determine the effects of fear of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) on socio-psychological health during an outbreak of MERS and the post-traumatic stress as a mediator on the relationship between stress and socio-psychological health. Methods : Visual Analog Scale, Impact of Event Scale -Revised, Psychosocial well-being index short form was implemented for 150 medical persons who worked at the hospital in which exposure to MERS cases had been confirmed and 96 ordinary people. A Pearson correlation coefficient and a hierarchical multiple regression was carried out to confirm the effect of fear of MERS and the mediating effect of post-traumatic stress between fear and socio-psychological health. Results : The higher the fear, the lower the socio-psychological health in both healthcare workers and the public (r=0.32, p<0.01) and the higher post-traumatic stress (r=0.32, p<0.01). But, the research results showed that only healthcare workers had a partially mediating effect of post-traumatic stress in the relationship between fear and socio-psychological health (${\beta}=0.45$, t=6.33 p<0.001), (${\beta}$ value : 0.39>0.26). Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the post-traumatic stress can indirectly lead to a negative effect on the socio-psychological health of healthcare workers when under the fear of MERS and shows adverse effects on psycho-social wellbeing. This suggests that clinical intervention and psycho-social approach aiming at reducing post-traumatic stress is important to maintain mental health during crisis development.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제41권3호
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• pp.216-221
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• 2015

Since Patient Zero of MERS was diagnosed in May 20, 2015, cases of MERS continued to grow. The current situation, which people have been confirmed to be infected, suggested that contaminated indoor air could be the potential cause of hospital-acquired infections. It is important to address the indoor air quality in hospitals because pathogens can spread through air. While the heating, ventilating and air conditioning(HVAC) system is useful managing indoor air quality in hospitals, it can transmit the pathogens if operated improperly. Therefore, it is necessary to remove contaminants in hospitals and operate the HVAC system according to the guidelines, in order to maintain clean indoor air.