• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.297-307
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• 2017

The epidemic model is used to model the spread of disease and to control the disease. In this research, we utilize SEIR model which is one of applications the SIR model that incorporates Exposed step to the model. The SEIR model assumes that a people in the susceptible contacted infected moves to the exposed period. After staying in the period, the infectee tends to sequentially proceed to the status of infected, recovered, and removed. This type of infection can be used for research in cases where there is a latency period after infectious disease. In this research, we collected respiratory infectious disease data for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERSCoV). Assuming that the spread of disease follows a stochastic process rather than a deterministic one, we utilized the Poisson process for the variation of infection and applied epidemic model to the stochastic chemical reaction model. Using observed pandemic data, we estimated three parameters in the SIER model; exposed rate, transmission rate, and recovery rate. After estimating the model, we applied the fitted model to the explanation of spread disease. Additionally, we include a process for generating the Exposed trajectory during the model estimation process due to the lack of the information of exact trajectory of Exposed.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.69-81
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• 2017

This study examines how South Korean governments responded to the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) using the adaptive governance framework. As of November 24, 2015, the MERS outbreak in South Korea resulted in the quarantine of about 17,000 people, 186 cases confirmed, and a death of 38. Although the national government had overall responsibility for MERS response, there is no clear understanding of how the ministries, agencies, and subnational governments take an adaptive response to the public health crisis. The paper uses the adaptive governance framework to understand how South Korean governments respond to the unexpected event regarding the following aspects: responsiveness, public learning, scientific learning, and representativeness of the decision mechanisms. The framework helps understand how joint efforts of the national and subnational governments were coordinated to the unexpected conditions. The study highlights the importance of adaptive governance for an effective response to a public-health related extreme event.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.262-265
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• 2024

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.265-269
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• 2020

Korea has failed to respond to the Middle East respiratory syndrome of 2015 and the early phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) of 2020. This is due to the structural problems of the Ministry of Health and Welfare that has been more increased manpower and budgets of the welfare part relative to those of the health part, and the ministers were appointed welfare experts, not health experts. In 21 (56.8%) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the Ministry of Health operates independently, and these countries have been relatively well coping with COVID-19. The importance of the Korean health sector is increasing even further. Korea faces on the emerging infectious diseases, chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis that has been being a huge burden, and rapidly increasing non-communicable diseases, suicide and mental disorders, and some diseases due to fine dust and climate change. In addition, the rapid advancement of the aging society, the entry of an era of ultra-low fertility and low-economic growth, and the unification of the Korean peninsula are calling for a health policy reform. Therefore, the Ministry of Health should be established and systematically responsible for health policy, disease policy, medical policy, and medical security policy. Ministry of Health will be the control tower for K-Disease Control, K-Bio, and K-Health.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.301-307
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• 2018

The development of transport is being easily shared with people all over the world. It is necessary to appropriately and effectively revise the domestic quarantine law because the fatal infectious diseases are at risk of being easily shared. Today, Korea has an advanced quarantine system approved by World Health Organization, but it maintains partnerships with related ministries (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, local medical institutions) and to introduce new medical technology (electronic quarantine) is important. And since the prevention of quarantine infectious diseases and prevention of the spread, in order to maintain international cooperation with the International Health Regulations, the quarantine law and the system should be amended and improved effectively and it is also a way to prepare for the outbreak of new quarantine infectious diseases. In the past, Korea has experienced great confusion during the past outbreak of swine flu and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. To prevent similar cases from recurring in the past, the revision of the quarantine law and the improvement of the system should be done to cope with the changing environment (new infections, increased number of overseas travelers, etc.).

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.380-388
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• 2022

Background: Emerging infectious diseases, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome or coronavirus disease 2019, pose a continuous threat to public health, making a risk assessment necessary for infectious disease control and prevention. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the risk assessment methods for infectious diseases used by major foreign countries and organizations. Methods: We conducted an investigation and comparative analysis of risk assessment and risk determination methods for infectious diseases. The risk assessment tools included the strategic toolkit for assessing risks, influenza risk assessment tool, pandemic severity assessment framework, and rapid risk assessment methodology. Results: The most frequently reported risk elements were disease severity, antiviral treatment, attack rate, population immunity, and basic productive ratio. The risk evaluation method was evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively by the stakeholders at each institution. Additionally, the final risk level was visualized in a matrix, framework, and x and y-axis. Conclusion: Considering the risk assessment tools, the risk element was classified based on the duplicate of each indicator, and risk evaluation and level of risk assessment were analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.599-607
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• 2016

The first patient of Middle East respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus infection in Korea was confirmed on May 20, 2015. After that, MERS spread over the country. In recent years, patients of MERS have been found around the Arabian Peninsula and the case fatality ratio of MERS in those area was been reported to range from 30 to 40%. In this paper, we estimate the case fatality ratio of MERS of Korea using data of 186 infections until December 1, 2015. In this study we propose a novel estimator of the case fatality ratio using information of the patients severity condition as well as records on the days of confirmation and death or recovery of the patient. By using publicly available data of the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control, we evaluate a performance of the estimator and demonstrate a stability of the estimator from the early stage of the epidemic.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.171-185
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• 2021

배경: 2015년 한국의 중동호흡기증후군 유행에서 지역간 치명률의 차이는 극명하였다. 이 연구는 대전 클러스터와 다른 지역 간의 치명률의 관련된 일반적 특성 및 역학적 요인을 밝히고저 하였다. 방법: 입원병원 소재지를 기준으로 대전과 타 지역으로 구분하여 관련변수에 따른 카이제곱검정 및 피셔정확검정 등으로 분석하였다. 대전과 다른 지역의 치명률(CFR)의 차이와 관련된 요인을 분석하기 위하여 단변량 및 다변량 로지스틱 회귀분석를 실시하였다. 결과: 모형 I에서는 65세 이상 연령군일수록 7.12배(95% CI 2.33-21.8)(p=0.001), 동반질환이 있는 경우 10.29배(95% CI 2.94-36.06)(p<0.001), 잠복기가 7일 이하인 경우가 8.55배(95% CI 2.54-26.7), 입원기간이 17일 이하인 경우 10.08배(95% CI 2.99-31.9)(p<0.001) 등이었으며, 모형 II에서는 65세 이상 연령군일수록 5.34배(95% CI 1.65-17.2)(p=0.005), 잠복기가 7일 이하인 경우가 6.70배(95% CI 1.96-22.89), 입원기간이 17일 이하인 경우 8.90배(95% CI 2.59-30.6)(p=0.001), 동반질환에서 암의 경우에서 7.15배(95% CI 1.64-31.14)(p=0.009) 등이었다. 결론: 2015년 한국 중동호흡기증후군 유행에서 대전 클러스터의 높은 치명율은 연령(≥65세), 동반질환(특히 암), 잠복기(≤7일), 입원기간(≤17일) 등이 유의한 변수로 도출되었다.

• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.397-402
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• 2019

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) uses the spike (S) glycoprotein to recognize and enter target cells. In this study, we selected two epitope peptide sequences within the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the MERS-CoV S protein. We used a complex consisting of the epitope peptide of the MERS-CoV S protein and CpG-DNA encapsulated in liposome complex to immunize mice, and produced the monoclonal antibodies 506-2G10G5 and 492-1G10E4E2. The western blotting data showed that both monoclonal antibodies detected the S protein and immunoprecipitated the native form of the S protein. Indirect immunofluorescence and confocal analysis suggested strong reactivity of the antibodies towards the S protein of MERS-CoV virus infected Vero cells. Furthermore, the 506-2G10G5 monoclonal antibody significantly reduced plaque formation in MERS-CoV infected Vero cells compared to normal mouse IgG and 492-1G10E4E2. Thus, we successfully produced a monoclonal antibody directed against the RBD domain of the S protein which could be used in the development of diagnostics and therapeutic applications in the future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1928-1936
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• 2018

Recently, human infections caused by severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), which can lead to fatality, have dramatically increased in East Asia. With the unavailability of vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent and/or treat SFTSV infection, early rapid diagnosis is critical for prevention and control of the disease. Here, we report the development of a simple, rapid and sensitive portable detection method for SFTSV infection applying reverse transcription-loop mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) combined with one-pot colorimetric visualization and electro-free reaction platform. This method utilizes a pocket warmer to facilitate diagnosis in a resource-limited setting. Specific primers were designed to target the highly-conserved region of L gene of SFTSV. The detection limit of the RT-LAMP assay was approximately $10^0$ viral genome copies from three different SFTSV strains. This assay exhibited comparable sensitivity to qRT-PCR and 10-fold more sensitivity than conventional RT-PCR, with a rapid detection time of 30 to 60 minutes. The RT-LAMP assay using SFTSV clinical specimens has demonstrated a similar detection rate to qRT-PCR and a higher detection rate compared to conventional RT-PCR. Moreover, there was no observed cross-reactive amplification of other human infectious viruses including Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), Dengue, Enterovirus, Zika, Influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This highly sensitive, electro- and equipment-free rapid colorimetric visualization method is feasible for resource-limited SFTSV field diagnosis.