• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.56-63
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• 2015

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Disaster Information Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.298-299
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• 2015

본 논문은 2013년 5월 국제바이러스 분류 위원회에서 중동호흡기증후군을 일으키는 신종 코로나바이러스를 메르스코로나바이러스(MERS-CoV)라 명명한 후, 2015년 5월 국내에 감염자가 들어와 이후 확산되고, 중동 호흡기 증후군 환자 발생 후 국내 첫 사망자가 발생한 일개 병원 지역응급의료센터 내원 후 확산을 막기 위하여 시행하였던 경험들을 공유하고자 한 내용이다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.2014-2021
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• 2019

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) belongs to the genus Betacoronavirus and causes severe morbidity and mortality in humans especially when infected patients have underlying diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Previously, we demonstrated that MERS-CoV-encoded ORF8b strongly inhibits MDA5- and RIG-I-mediated induction of the interferon beta (IFN-β) promoter activities. Here, we report that ORF8b seemed to regulate MDA5 or RIG-I differentially as protein levels of MDA5 were significantly down-regulated while those of RIG-I were largely unperturbed. In addition, ORF8b seemed to efficiently suppress phosphorylation of IRF3 at the residues of 386 and 396 in cells transfected with RIG-I while total endogenous levels of IRF3 remained largely unchanged. Furthermore, ORF8b was able to inhibit all forms of RIG-I; full-length, RIG-I-1-734, and RIG-I-1-228, the last of which contains only the CARD domains. Taken together, it is tempting to postulate that ORF8b may interfere with the CARD-CARD interactions between RIG-I and MAVS. Further detailed analysis is required to delineate the mechanisms of how ORF8b inhibits the MDA5/RIG-I receptor signaling pathway.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.77-88
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the degree of role conflict and its ambiguity, and fatigue in clinical nurses and to analyze the effect of these on their self-resilience in order to provide fundamental data for improving their working environment after the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak. Methods: After the collection of data from 258 clinical nurses in five general hospitals, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0. Results: A significant positive correlation was found between nurses' role conflict and ambiguity and fatigue; while a negative correlation was found between nurses' role conflict and ambiguity and self-resilience. A significant negative correlation was found between fatigue and self-resilience. According to the study results, the factor that affected clinical nurses' self-resilience the most was role conflict and its ambiguity, followed by marital status, fatigue, educational level, religion, and related tasks, which together accounted for 38% of self-resilience in clinical nurses. Conclusion: To improve weaknesses in nursing care after the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, the scope of nursing care was changed upon the expansion of integrated nursing and care-giving services. Therefore, in the rapidly changing environment of nursing, policies to improve nursing performance, as well as successful reaction capability, are suggested.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.207-217
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the workplace response system (WRS) against infectious disasters (IDs) based on the response attitudes and capacity of occupational health nurses (OHNs) who worked during the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea. Methods: Fifty-one participants who had worked as OHNs at the time of the 2015 MERS outbreak were surveyed from November 20 to December 10, 2016. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and McNemaer's test. Results: According to the survey results, the following were lacking in the WRS: a dedicated ID-response team, manuals, related education programs for OHNs, and health education programs for workers. Results also confirmed that workers were vulnerable to new infectious diseases because of the lack of health checkups and support for workers before and after business trips abroad. Among the respondents, 98.0% answered affirmatively that an ID was important for health management in the workplace, but 64.7% answered that it was difficult to manage an ID. The perceived capacity items to respond to IDs ranged from 3.0 points to 3.3 points. This scores were generally high. Conclusion: As the WRS is currently insufficient, it is necessary to develop an adequate WRS to IDs by addressing the identified problems.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.185-196
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• 2017

This study was conducted to investigate the practical experience of nurses in MERS patients care. Nine nurses in one general hospital in S city underwent in-depth interviews from August 2015 to March 2016. The collected data were analyzed according to the procedure of the phenomenological method of Colaizzi. The following five categories were derived: '1. Anxiety and burden due to the risk of transmission of new infectious diseases', '2. Social isolation because of being the nurse in charge of MERS patients', '3. Faced with problems due to an unprepared treatment environment', '4. Overcome the burdensome MERS patient care process', '5. Reflect on the steps for preparing against new infectious diseases'. These results suggest that it is important to draw positive experiences as well as the negative effects of nurses who are involved in treatment of various infectious diseases, including MERS. Based on this, it can be used as a basis for reducing negative psychological and social impacts and improving positive adaptation. Additionally, it is necessary for healthcare workers including nurses to establish the necessary workforces, departments and guidelines for nursing new infectious disease patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.427-435
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• 2016

Recently, hand washing has been emphasized as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) threatened public health. This study aimed to prevent MERS by hand washing frequency and analyzed the relationship between hand washing behavior and trait anxiety, locus of control and health promotion behavior. In this study, 314 nursing students participated in a survey where they could indicate what they did and the frequency of hand washing for preventing MERS. They also responded to questions related to the trait anxiety, locus of control, and health promotion behavior. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The frequency of hand washing was highest among the measures that the participants used and it was significantly related to the participants who reported high scores for the importance of hand washing. In addition, the importance of hand washing was impacted by the internal locus of control. Most nursing students who participated the survey acknowledged that hand washing was the most important method for preventing MERS. Therefore, it is important to educate people on the importance of hand washing and pay attention to personal characteristics, such as internal locus of control to promote hand-washing.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2020

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging viral disease with fatal outcomes. However, no MERS-CoV-specific treatment is commercially available. Given the absence of previous structure-based drug discovery studies targeting MERS-CoV fusion proteins, this set of compounds is considered the first generation of MERS-CoV small molecule fusion inhibitors. After a virtual screening campaign of 1.56 million compounds followed by cell-cell fusion assay and MERS-CoV plaques inhibition assay, three new compounds were identified. Compound numbers 22, 73, and 74 showed IC₅₀ values of 12.6, 21.8, and 11.12 µM, respectively, and were most effective at the onset of spike-receptor interactions. The compounds exhibited safe profiles against Human embryonic kidney cells 293 at a concentration of 20 µM with no observed toxicity in Vero cells at 10 µM. The experimental results are accompanied with predicted favorable pharmacokinetic descriptors and drug-likeness parameters. In conclusion, this study provides the first generation of MERS-CoV fusion inhibitors with potencies in the low micromolar range.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.52
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• pp.145-162
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• 2017

In 2005, the Republic of Korea suffered from the outbreak of MERS(Middle East respiratory syndrome), leaving 186 infectees and 38 casualties. Responding to this crisis, Korean government revealed many problems in emergency management policies and was widely criticized. A similar case in emergency management and infectious disease control is the 1999 outbreak of West Nile Virus(WNV) outbreak in the United States. During this period, the state of Oregon effectively responded to WNV through collaboration between state and local government, being considered as a model case of emergency management. This article aims to find insights in emergency management and infectious disease control by analyzing and comparing the responses of Korean MERS outbreak and Oregon's WNV outbreak focusing on interorganizational collaboration. Insights found in this study include the role of control tower, the importance of information sharing and disclosure, the role of existing systems and social networks, and sustainable intergovernmental collaboration.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.144-156
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• 2017

Purpose: Crisis is inevitable to every organization and therefore, successful crisis management is critical to the organizations' survival and prosperity. With the understanding, this study aims to draw propositions for successful crisis management of hospitals when facing infectious disease outbreak. For the purpose, a case of a small and medium sized hospital's experience of crisis management during 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak was analyzed. Methodology/Approach: The detailed internal circumstances and experiences of the hospital during the MERS outbreak were identified by in-depth interview as well as the extensive material review, and analyzed under the view of the theories of accident, error, and crisis in relation of organization management Findings: Overall, nine propositions are drawn by the phase of crisis. In pre-crisis phase, for example, 'the hospital preparedness has positive influence on the effective responding to the crisis'. In detection phase, 'the mindfulness of the hospital organizations' as well as the individuals' has positive influence on detecting the crisis signals'. In crisis phase, for example, 'improvising naturally occurs in crisis by the unknown disease, therefore, a component site supervisor coordinating such improvision is important'. Lastly, in post-crisis phase, 'successful crisis responding experience facilitates the positive hospital culture'. Practical implication: From the experience of a small and medium size hospital, it is suggested that proactive system approach oriented by safety is beneficial for effective crisis management.