• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.274-276
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• 2015

Since the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) began on May 11, 2015, a total of 186 persons have been infected by the MERS coronavirus, 38 of whom have died. With this number, Korea becomes second only to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the ranking of cumulative MERS cases. In this paper Korea's unique experience of an outbreak of MERS will be summarized and discussed briefly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.18-22
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• 2016

Ethical considerations are essential in planning for and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. During the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Republic of Korea in 2015, serious challenges emerged regarding important ethical issues, such as transparency and the protection of privacy. The development of bioethics in Korea has been influenced by individualistic perspectives applied in clinical contexts, leading to a paucity of ethical perspectives relevant to population-level phenomena such as outbreaks. Alternative theories of public health ethics include the perspectives of relational autonomy and the patient as victim and vector. Public health actions need to incorporate clear and systematic procedures founded upon ethical principles. The MERS-CoV epidemic in Korea created significant public support for more aggressive early interventions in future outbreaks. This trend makes it all the more imperative for ethical principles and procedures to be implemented in future planning and responses to outbreaks in order to promote perceptions of legitimacy and civic participation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.277-279
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• 2015

Contact monitoring is an essential component of the public health response to a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, and is required for an effective quarantine to contain the epidemic. The timeliness of a quarantine is associated with its effectiveness. This paper provides a conceptual framework to describe the process of contact monitoring, and proposes a new measure called the "timely quarantined proportion" as a tool to assess the adequacy of a public health response.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.30.1-30.7
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• 2020

The novel coronavirus pandemic that has originated from China and spread throughout the world in three months. Genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) predecessor, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) play an important role in understanding the concept of genetic variation. In this paper, the genomic data accessed from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) through Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis (MEGA) for statistical analysis. Firstly, the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and Akaike information criterion (AICc) are used to evaluate the best substitution pattern. Secondly, the maximum likelihood method used to estimate of transition/transversions (R) through Kimura-2, Tamura-3, Hasegawa-Kishino-Yano, and Tamura-Nei nucleotide substitutions model. Thirdly and finally nucleotide frequencies computed based on genomic data of NCBI. The results indicate that general times reversible model has the lowest BIC and AICc score 347,394 and 347,287, respectively. The transition/transversions bias for nucleotide substitutions models varies from 0.56 to 0.59 in MEGA output. The average nitrogenous bases frequency of U, C, A, and G are 31.74, 19.48, 28.04, and 20.74, respectively in percentages. Overall the genomic data analysis of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV highlights the close genetic relationship.

• 기본간호학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.402-410
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• 2016

Purpose: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical to protect healthcare workers from pandemic outbreaks. This study was designed to identify nurses' knowledge, attitude and perceptions on PPE. Methods: Data were collected from 154 nurses working at a tertiary general hospital, where positively diagnosed and suspected patients were accepted and admitted during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus outbreak in 2015. The PPE tool consists of 20 items for knowledge, and 5 each for attitudes and perceptions. Results: Overall, knowledge for PPE was higher than moderate (76.95/100), but there was a lack for items related to powered air purifying respirator (PAPR). For attitudes, willingness to work in pandemic outbreaks was the most positive (4.04/5.00). Goggles and PAPR were perceived as the most uncomfortable barriers to work. There was no correlation between knowledge, attitude and perceptions, despite a strong positive correlation between attitude and perceptions. PPE training was identified as a factor to improve knowledge and attitudes on PPE. Conclusion: To respond to pandemic influenza, nurses need to expand their knowledge on PPE up to Level C, and be updated through regular training. Study findings suggest that repetitive studies targeting nurses and other healthcare workers at various hospital settings are necessary.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.265-270
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• 2015

The recent Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak has originated from a failure in the national quarantine system in the Republic of Korea as most basic role of protecting the safety and lives of its citizens. Furthermore, a number of the Korean healthcare system's weaknesses seem to have been completely exposed. The MERS-CoV outbreak can be considered a typical public health crisis in that the public was not only greatly terrorized by the actual fear of the disease, but also experienced a great impact to their daily lives, all in a short period of time. Preparedness for and an appropriate response to a public health crisis require comprehensive systematic public healthcare measures to address risks comprehensively with an all-hazards approach. Consequently, discussion regarding establishment of post-MERS-CoV improvement measures must focus on the total reform of the national quarantine system and strengthening of the public health infrastructure. In addition, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must implement specific strategies of action including taking on the role of "control tower" in a public health emergency, training of Field Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, establishment of collaborative governance between central and local governments for infection prevention and control, strengthening the roles and capabilities of community-based public hospitals, and development of nationwide crisis communication methods.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.283-290
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• 2021

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) is a major coronavirus that infects humans with human Coronavirus (HuCoV)-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-NL63, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). SARS-CoV2 is currently a global pandemic pathogen. In this study, we developed conventional RT-PCR based diagnostic system for the detection of SARS-CoV2 which is relatively inexpensive but has high stability and a wide range of users. Three conventional RT-PCR primer sets capable of forming specific band sizes by targeting the ORF1ab [232 nucleotide (nt)], E (200 nt) and N (288 nt) genes of SARS-CoV2 were developed, respectively, and it were confirmed to be about 10~100 times higher detection sensitivity than the previously reported methods. In addition, a standard positive control that can generate specific amplicons by reacting with the developed RT-PCR primers and verify the false-positiv from contamination of the laboratory was produced. Therefore, the diagnostic system that uses the RT-PCR method is expected to be used to detect SARS-CoV2.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.143-146
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• 2015

중동호흡기증후군 코로나바이러스(Middle East respiratory coronavirus, MERS-CoV)로 인한 질환은 2012년부터 보고되었다. 현재까지 대부분의 질환은 성인에서 발생하였으며 소아에 대한 보고는 매우 부족한 실정이다. 그리하여 본 연구에서는 소아에서 MERS-CoV 감염증의 역학적 특성과 임상 양상을 분석하였다. 전세계적으로 MERS-CoV에 감염된 소아는 34명이었으며(2015년 10월 29일 기준), 이는 전체 환자의 2.1%를 차지하였다. 소아 환자들의 중앙 연령은 13세(범위, 9개월부터 17세까지)이었으며, 성별이 보고된 자료(n=33) 중 57.6%가 남자였다. 전체 환자 중에서 약 반은 무증상 감염이었으며, 대부분의 증상이 있는 환자는 호흡기 증상을 동반하였다. MERS-CoV에 감염된 환자들의 예후는 대부분 양호하였으나, 사망한 환자는 4명이었으며 이 중 3명은 기저 질환이 있었다. 전세계적으로 소아에서 발생한 MERS-CoV 감염에 대한 보고 자료를 분석한 결과 MERS-CoV 감염은 소아에서 발생이 낮고 성인에 비해 예후가 좋은 것으로 나타났다.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제63권4호
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• pp.119-124
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• 2020

A cluster of severe pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan City, Hubei province in China emerged in December 2019. A novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was isolated from lower respiratory tract sample as the causative agent. The current outbreak of infections with SARS-CoV-2 is termed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO). COVID-19 rapidly spread into at least 114 countries and killed more than 4,000 people by March 11 2020. WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. There have been 2 novel coronavirus outbreaks in the past 2 decades. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 caused by SARS-CoV had a case fatality rate of around 10% (8,098 confirmed cases and 774 deaths), while Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) caused by MERS-CoV killed 861 people out of a total 2,502 confirmed cases between 2012 and 2019. The purpose of this review is to summarize known-to-date information about SARS-CoV-2, transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and clinical features.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

2019년 12월에 중국 후베이성 우한시에서 원인 미상 폐렴이 무리 지어 발생하기 시작하였다. 환자의 하기도에서 이전에 알려지지 않은 새로운 코로나바이러스가 분리되었으며 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)로 명명되었다. 세계보건기구는 SARS-CoV-2에 의한 질병을 코로나바이러스감염증-19(coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19)로 명명하였다. 2020년 3월 11일에 COVID-19는 전세계 최소 114국으로 퍼졌으며 약 4,000명이 사망하여 세계보건기구는 COVID-19가 세계적 대유행임을 선언하였다. 지난 20년 동안 새로운 코로나바이러스에 의한 두 번의 유행이 있었다. 2002-2003년 중증급성호흡기증후군(severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS) 유행 시에는 8,098명의 확진 환자와 774명의 사망자가 발생하였으며, 2012년에 사우디 아라비아에서 시작되어 현재까지 주로 아라비아 반도에서 발생하고 있는 중동호흡기증후군(Middle East respiratory syndrome, MERS)는 2019년까지 총 2,499명의 환자와 858명의 사망자를 발생시켰다. 본 종설의 목적은 2020년 3월 12일까지 알려진 SARS-CoV-2의 특징과 전파 양상 및 COVID-19의 임상 증상을 알아보고 SARS와 MERS와의 유사점 및 차이점에 대하여 간략하게 소개하는 것이다.