• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.131-140
• /
• 2001

Objectives : During March-May, 2000, a measles outbreak occurred at Youngduk, Korea. This county is divided into two areas with different historical and socioeconomic background. The outbreak occurred in one of these areas. We conducted a comparative epidemiologic study on the two areas in order to evaluate the factors related to the epidemic. Materials and Methods : We selected two groups, grades 3 and 5 in a primary schools in each area. We investigated outbreak-related factors using parent-questionnaires, the vaccination history from the student's health record and the records concerning the recent measles-outbreak from the local health center. Serologic test on measles-IgG and -IgM antibody was done. Results : The infection rate was 31.5% for the epidemic area and 3.7% for non-the epidemic area according to clinical or serological criteria (p<0.001). No difference was seen in the measles vaccination rate, residence at the time of vaccination or past measles infection history between the two areas. In the epidemic area, the attack rate for the 4-6 year-old MMR booster group(20.5%) was higher than the non-booster group(32.4%), but was not found significantly. Vaccine efficacy was 29.6% in the epidemic area and 87.0% in the non-epidemic area (p<0.001). The IgG level and positive rate were significantly different between the two areas (median 10727 IU/ml, 98.9% in epidemic area; median 346 IU/ml, 85.9% in the non-epidemic area, p<0.001). However, the IgG level and positive rate between the measles-cases and non-cases were not significantly different. Conclusions : This outbreak took place in mostly vaccinated children. These results suggest that a reduction of herd immunity for immunity failure after vaccination may be one of the feasible factors related to the outbreak pattern in the two areas. The results of the IgG level and positive rate suggest that re-establishment of a normal value for IgG level and of a qualitative method for IgG are needed.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.493-506
• /
• 2008

In order to examine the variational features of Asian dust outbreak in recent years, observed WMO synop data were employed for the period from 1996 to 2007. We first divided Asian dust source regions into four subregions; 1) Taklamakan, 2) Gobi, 3) Inner Mongolia-Manchuria and 4) Loess, and the meteorogical variables such as wind speed, precipitation and threshold wind speed observed during the Asian dust outbreak period were compared with those during non-Asian dust period. The results showed that temporal variation of occurrence frequency of dust outbreak had a strong positive correlation with the frequency of strong wind speed and low precipitation in each of the 4 source regions. Spatial distributions of frequency of dust occurrence after 2002 showed increasing trend in Gobi and Inner Mongolia-Manchuria but decreasing trend in Loess region. This is showing a shift in main source region toward Northwest, especially since 2003.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2023

This study was conducted to explore the change in the market issues on HMR (Home Meal Replacements) using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Online text data were collected from internet news, social media posts, and web documents before (from January 2016 to December 2019) and after (from January 2020 to November 2022) the COVID-19 outbreak. TF-IDF analysis showed that 'Trend', 'Market', 'Consumption', and 'Food service industry' were the major keywords before the COVID-19 outbreak, whereas 'Wanju-gun', 'Distribution', 'Development', and 'Meal-kit' were main keywords after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of topic modeling analysis and categorization showed that after the COVID-19 outbreak, the 'Market' category included 'Non-face-to-face market' instead of 'Event,' and 'Delivery' instead of 'Distribution'. In the 'Product' category, 'Marketing' was included instead of 'Trend'. Additionally, in the 'Support' category, 'Start-up' and 'School food service' appeared as new topics after the COVID-19 outbreak. In conclusion, this study showed that meaningful change had occurred in market issues on HMR using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, governments should take advantage of such market opportunity by implementing policy and programs to promote the development and marketing of HMR using local foods.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.185-189
• /
• 2011

Objectives: In 1995, an outbreak survey in Gozan-dong concluded that an association between fiberglass exposure in drinking water and cancer outbreak cannot be established. This study follows the subjects from a study in 1995 using a data linkage method to examine whether an association existed. The authors will address the potential benefits and methodological issues following outbreak surveys using data linkage, particularly when informed consent is absent. Methods: This is a follow-up study of 697 (30 exposed) individuals out of the original 888 (31 exposed) participants (78.5%) from 1995 to 2007 assessing the cancer outcomes and deaths of these individuals. The National Cancer Registry (KNCR) and death certificate data were linked using the ID numbers of the participants. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) from cancers were calculated by the KNCR. Results: The SIR values for all cancer or gastrointestinal cancer (GI) occurrences were the lowest in the exposed group (SIR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.10 to 5.21; 0.00 for GI), while the two control groups (control 1: external, control 2: internal) showed slight increases in their SIR values (SIR, 1.18 and 1.27 for all cancers; 1.62 and 1.46 for GI). All lacked statistical significance. All-cause mortality levels for the three groups showed the same pattern (SMR 0.37, 1.29, and 1.11). Conclusions: This study did not refute a finding of non-association with a 13-year follow-up. Considering that many outbreak surveys are associated with a small sample size and a cross-sectional design, follow-up studies that utilize data linkage should become standard procedure.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.215-224
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study uses data from the 12th~17th Korea Welfare Panel (2017~2022) to analyze changes in depression scores due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the factors that influenced depression scores according to employment type. Methods: The difference in depression scores according to employment types before COVID-19 (12th~14th) and after COVID-19 (15th~17th) was analyzed. A fixed-effect model analysis was conducted before and after the occurrence of COVID-19. Results: After the outbreak of COVID-19, job satisfaction and family life satisfaction influenced the depression scores of regular wage workers. After the outbreak of COVID-19, annual income, health status, and satisfaction with family life affected the depression scores of non-regular wage workers. After the outbreak of COVID-19, leisure life satisfaction and family relationship satisfaction influenced the depression scores of self-employed. Self-esteem played a role as a control variable in lowering the depression scores of regular and non-regular workers, but did not play a role as a control variable for self-employed. Conclusion: Rather than the direct impact of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, social and economic changes resulting from policies implemented to prevent the spread affect workers' depression, and the impact varies depending on the type of employment. When implementing policies to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the future, policies that take employment type into consideration rather than uniform policies should be prepared, and measures for mental health also need to be prepared.

• CELLMED
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.29.1-29.6
• /
• 2020

COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-2019) is an infectious respiratory disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus-2). This new viral disease was unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As of November 16th 2020, it affects about 54.3 million populations, death troll increased to 1.32 million cases in worldwide. Whereas in India 8.85 cases are infected with COVID-19, of which 1, 30, 112 cases were died. Till now there has been no specific anti-virus drug or vaccines are available for the treatment of this disease, the supportive care and non-specific treatment to the symptoms of the patient are the only options in Biomedicine, the entire world turns its attention towards alternative medicine or Traditional medicine. Siddha medicine is one of the primordial systems of medicine practiced in the southern part of India, it dealt a lot about pandemic, and its management. This review provides an insight into Pandemic in Siddha system and its management in both ancient history and modern history, National and state level Government policies related to current pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on usage of unproven drug during infectious disease outbreak, Preparedness of Siddha system during a pandemic outbreak Challenges and Recommendations.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.313-324
• /
• 2022

This study aims to quantitatively understand the influence of changes in functional cosmetics purchasing sentiment on purchasing behavior and purchase satisfaction after the COVID-19 pandemic and present empirical analysis results regarding the rapidly changing cosmetics consumption market. This study empirically analyzed the structural relationship between non-face-to-face service purchase behavior, functional cosmetics purchase behavior, and functional cosmetics purchase satisfaction to predict purchase behavior of functional cosmetics by psychological characteristics after COVID-19. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 (Statistical Package for Social Science) program and Amos 21.0, and correlation analysis was performed to understand the relationship between consumers' purchasing behaviors of functional cosmetics according to their perception of risk of COVID-19 carried out.Summarizing the results of this study, it was found that the higher the anxiety after the corona outbreak, the higher the non-face-to-face service purchase behavior and the functional cosmetics purchase behavior. It was found that purchase satisfaction increased when purchasing behavior of functional cosmetics increased, but purchase satisfaction decreased as anxiety increased after the outbreak of Corona.In this study, a sample of 1452 people were used as research data, and the theoretical implications for the development of functional cosmetics were presented by confirming the effect of changes in non-face-to-face service purchase behavior according to psychological characteristics after Corona 19 on consumer satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.372-381
• /
• 2014

We investigated cause of non-outbreak of Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms in the western coast of Jaran Bay during Summer, 2013, by combining chemical field data and physiological data of C. polykrikoides, which had been already published. The predominant species were mainly diatoms, and dominant species was Cerataulina pelagica, Chaetoceros spp., Navicula spp. and Nitzschia spp.. In case of dissolved inorganic nutrients in the western coast of Jaran Bay, dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) was similar to that in previous outbreak period of C. polykrikoides blooms, but dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) was lower. C. polykrikoides might be disadvantageous in competition with diatom species because half-saturation constants (Ks) of C. polykrikoides for inorganic nutrients was lower than those of diatoms. Also, the western coast of Jaran Bay, where DIN concentration is relatively low, was an unfavorable environment for growth of C. polykrikoides characterized by nitrogen dependence. Therefore, C. polykrikoides which have the disadvantageous position for competition of inorganic nutrient might have been suppressed by diatom blooms under environment of low nutrient in the western coast of Jaran Bay.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.408-415
• /
• 2009

Objectives : This study was performed to investigate the mumps transmission control status and inapparent infection rate among middle and high school students in Daegu City during a mumps outbreak. Methods : Nine schools (two middle schools and seven high schools), which reported a number of mumps cases between 2007 and 2008 were selected for investigation. During March-May 2008, a standard questionnaire was distributed to gather information about case identification, instructed isolation measure, isolation status of mumps cases and related factors, and outdoor activities of nonisolated mumps case. Inapparent infection rate was estimated by serum mumps IgM and IgG antibodies status and self-reported mumps symptoms in three of the nine schools. Results : Among 2,560 respondents, more than half of students answered that they did not receive instructions in mumps transmission control measures during the outbreak. Among the 327 mumps cases identified by the questionnaire, 131 cases (40.1%) were considered as isolated and the isolation rates were significantly different among schools, grades, and gender. Of the non-isolated cases, 88.3% continued attending school. Inapparent mumps infection rates were between 56.3% and 70.2%. Conclusions : Mumps transmission control was inadequate to control the mumps outbreak. Although high inapparent infection rate would mitigate the transmission control effect of case isolation, this measure is fundamental for infection control. The reasons of this inadequate status need to be explored to develop an effective intervention strategy.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.65 no.1
• /
• pp.130-137
• /
• 2022

Objective : COVID-19 has spread worldwide since the first case was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Our institution is a regional trauma and emergency center in the northern Gyeonggi Province. The changing trend of patient care in the emergency room of this hospital likely reflects the overall trend of patients in the area. In the present study, whether changes in the surrounding social environment following the outbreak of COVID-19 changed the incidence of neurosurgical emergency patients and whether differences in practice existed were investigated. Methods : The overall trend was analyzed from January 2020 which is before the outbreak of COVID-19 to September 2020. To remove bias due to seasonal variation, the previous 2 year's records during the same period were reviewed and compared. Confirmed COVID-19 patients in the northern Gyeonggi Province were identified using data released by the government. And patients who came to the emergency department with head trauma and stroke were identified. Results : Based on the present study results, the total number of neurosurgery emergency patients decreased over the study period. In the trauma patient group, the number of patients not involved in traffic accidents significantly decreased compared with patients involved in traffic accidents. Among the stroke cases, the rate of ischemic stroke was lower than hemorrhagic stroke, although a statistically significant difference was not observed. Meanwhile, an increase in the risk of mortality associated with trauma or stroke cases was not observed during the COVID-19 outbreak compared with the same time period in the previous year. Conclusion : Due to the occurrence of COVID-19, non-essential activities have decreased and trauma cases not associated with traffic accidents appeared to decrease. Due to the decrease in overall activity, the number of stroke patients has also decreased. This trend is expected to continue even in the post-COVID-19 era, and accordingly, the results from the present study are relevant especially if the current situation continues.