• 한국식품위생안전성학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.129-132
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• 2010

The epidemiology of reported food-borne disease (FBD) outbreaks from 2001 to 2008 in Korea nd Japan were compared in this study. The outbreak rate of FBD in Japan was significantly higher although the average umber of patient in each outbreak in Korea was much higher. In both countries, summer was the season when most FBD outbreaks occurred. The comparison study revealed that FBD outbreaks in spring were more frequent in Korea, and outbreaks in winter were more frequent in Japan. Almost half of FBD outbreaks were observed at restaurants in both countries while FBD outbreaks at schools and work-places in Korea were much higher than in Japan. The most frequent cause of bacterial FBDs in Korea was pathogenic Escherichia coli followed by Salmonella species. On the other hand, Campylobacter jejuni was the most frequent source of bacterial FBDs in Japan. Norovirus, which is elated to uncontrolled hand hygiene and involvement of ill food workers, was the main cause of viral FBDs in both countries. In conclusion, there are common epidemiological characteristics as well as several differences in FBD outbreaks of Korea and Japan. These are suggested to be originated from the characteristic of climate, food sources, and life styles in two countries. Establishment of stricter control and surveillance system for FBD outbreaks are required or prevention and reduction of FBD outbreaks in both countries.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.37-41
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• 2023

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a major impact worldwide. Several countries have implemented restrictions on social interaction ("social distancing"). Several studies have reported that the epidemiology of trauma patients, such as those with facial bone fractures, has changed after COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to further explore these specific changes. Methods This was a retrospective study of patients who presented to a single institution with facial bone fractures between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020. Baseline patient demographics, clinical information, type of fracture, etiology, and operative management were compared before and after COVID-19. Results Of all cases, 3,409 occurred before COVID-19, and 602 occurred after COVID-19. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of patients with facial fractures has not decreased significantly. A significant increase was noted in fractures that occurred outdoors (p < 0.001). However, a decrease was observed in operative management between the groups (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the proportion of assault, fall-down, industrial accident, or roll-down. In contrast, the proportion of traffic accidents and slip-down categories increased significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, a significant decrease was found in the proportion of the sports category (p = 0.001) Conclusions It was confirmed through this study that COVID-19 pandemic also affected epidemiology of facial fractures. Focusing on these changes, it is necessary to develop safety measures to reduce facial fractures.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.111-114
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• 1972

There was an outbreak of food poisoning on the 17 October, 1970 among the primary school children who came from a rural area, Yeongi-gun, Choongcheongnam-do to Seoul City on an educational trip. Of the 199 children participating in the trip, 149 cases of food poisoning developed a 74.9% attack rate. The acute onset of symptoms, of abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and headache which occurred 1-5 hours after eating their lunch suggests that the outbreak was due to staphylococcal food poisoning. The common source of food was identified as the lunch packed in a chip-box which were eaten on October 17 during the trip. Most probable kind of food of the lunch as the cause was the favoured fish paste. The lunch were prepared at restaurant A in Seoul City. One of the personnel of the restaurant had a unhealed cut wound on the third finger tip of the left hand, from which it was considered that the food was contaminated with Staphylococcus during preparation. The chance of multiplication of Staphylococcus to produce enterotoxin in the food might be existed during flavouring the food with some degree of heat, and also during about 10 hours elapsed before serving the food after preparation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.411-423
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• 1994

The survey methods for confirming the epidemicity and identifying the possible causes of the cancer epidemic can be different from those for infectious diseases. The procedure for confirming whether the outbreak is epidemic or not is quite different. Household survey for identifying cancer cases and residents actually living at the area should be done. Hospital survey for medical record review should be performed to identify all cancer cases among the residents of the outbreak area and confirmig the final diagnoses of the cancer cases. Comparing the level of cancer incidence or mortality with other areas can be done by using Poisson distribution, or calculating SIR (Standard Incidence Ratio) from cumulative incidence rates. Case-control study can be conducted to identify the etiologic, factors of the cancer epidemic and to establish strategy for preventing further recurrence of the outbreak.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.387-396
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• 2020

Objectives: The lack of advance planning in a public health emergency can lead to wasted resources and inadvertent loss of lives. This study is aimed at forecasting the needs for healthcare resources following the expansion of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the Republic of Kazakhstan, focusing on hospital beds, equipment, and the professional workforce in light of the developing epidemiological situation and the data on resources currently available. Methods: We constructed a forecast model of the epidemiological scenario via the classic susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) approach. The World Health Organization's COVID-19 Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool was used to evaluate the healthcare resources needed for the next 12 weeks. Results: Over the forecast period, there will be 104 713.7 hospital admissions due to severe disease and 34 904.5 hospital admissions due to critical disease. This will require 47 247.7 beds for severe disease and 1929.9 beds for critical disease at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. There will also be high needs for all categories of healthcare workers and for both diagnostic and treatment equipment. Thus, Republic of Kazakhstan faces the need for a rapid increase in available healthcare resources and/or for finding ways to redistribute resources effectively. Conclusions: Republic of Kazakhstan will be able to reduce the rates of infections and deaths among its population by developing and following a consistent strategy targeting COVID-19 in a number of inter-related directions.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.271-273
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• 2015

Quaternary prevention should be implemented to minimize harm to patients because the ultimate goal of medicine is to prevent disease and promote health. Primary care physicians have a major responsibility in quaternary prevention, and the establishment of clinical epidemiology as a distinct field of study would create a role charged with minimizing patient harm arising from over-medicalization.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.62-72
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• 2023

목적: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) 발생 이후 인간 코로나바이러스를 포함한 호흡기 바이러스의 패턴에 변화가 있을 것으로 생각되어, COVID-19 발생 이전 경기도 명지병원에 급성 호흡기 감염증으로 입원한 소아청소년을 대상으로 바이러스 감염의 패턴을 보고하였다. 방법: 2017년 1월부터 2019년 12월까지 급성 호흡기 감염증으로 명지병원에 입원한 18세 이하 소아청소년을 대상으로 하였고 real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) 결과를 바탕으로 후향적으로 의무기록을 고찰하였다. 결과: 총 3,557명 중에서 중복감염 포함하여 3,686건의 바이러스가 검출되었고 평균 양성률은 78.6%이었으며 여름에 비해 겨울에 PCR 양성률이 높았다. 파라인플루엔자바이러스, 메타뉴모바이러스, 보카바이러스는 4-6월에 주로 검출되고, 인간엔테로바이러스는 7-9월에, 호흡기세포융합바이러스와 인플루엔자바이러스는 겨울철에 주로 검출되었다. 진단별로 인두편도염에서는 아데노바이러스가 가장 많았고 폐렴에서는 호흡기세포융합바이러스가 가장 많이 검출되었다. 인간 코로나 바이러스는 겨울철에 주로 검출되었으며, 크루프 환자 중에서 3번째 높은 빈도로 나타났다. 결론: 본 연구결과가 이전에 보고되었던 소아청소년의 호흡기 바이러스 역학과 크게 다르지 않았다. 또한 COVID-19 발생 이후 호흡기 바이러스 패턴 비교 연구에 도움이 되고자 COVID-19 발생 이전 호흡기 바이러스 역학정보를 보고하는 바이다.

• 한국임상수의학회지
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.15-22
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• 2019

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is among the top infectious disease priorities in Korea and the leading cause of economic loss in relevant poultry industry. An understanding of the spatial epidemiology of HPAI outbreak is essential in assessing and managing the risk of the infection. Though previous studies have reported the majority of outbreaks occurred clustered in what are preferred to as densely populated poultry regions, especially in southwest coast of Korea, little is known about the spatial distribution of risk areas vulnerable to HPAI occurrence based on geographic information system (GIS). The main aim of the present study was to develop a GIS-based risk index model for defining potential high-risk areas of HPAI outbreaks and to explore spatial distribution in relative risk index for each 252 Si-Gun-Gu (administrative unit) in Korea. The risk index was derived incorporating seven GIS database associated with risk factors of HPAI in a standardized five-score scale. Scale 1 and 5 for each database represent the lowest and the highest risk of HPAI respectively. Our model showed that Jeollabuk-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Jeollanam-do and Chungcheongbuk-do regions will have the highest relative risk from HPAI. Areas with risk index value over 4.0 were Naju, Jeongeup, Anseong, Cheonan, Kochang, Iksan, Kyeongju and Kimje, indicating that Korea is at risk of HPAI introduction. Management and control of HPAI becomes difficult once the virus are established in domestic poultry populations; therefore, early detection and development of nationwide monitoring system through targeted surveillance of high-risk spots are priorities for preventing the future outbreaks.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.107-117
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• 2006

This paper described the epidemiological characteristics of 2002 outbreak of classical swine fever (CSF) in Korea. A total of thirteen CSF-infected farms could be classified into two clusters according to the location and time of outbreak. Two farms located in the same county of Gangwon province and 11 farms located in several different districts of Incheon metropolitan/Gyeonggi province were identified as CSF-infected from April 16 to 30 and from October 7 to December 21 in 2002, respectively. As the result of epidemiological analysis, the two clusters of outbreaks were turned out to be independent epidemics which had different sources of virus introduction. Three farms were found to have been infected primarily; one located in Cheolwon county of Gangwon province and two located in Kangwha county of Incheon metropolitan area. The most likely factors of virus introduction into these primary infected farms were considered to be direct or indirect contact by foreign workers and/or owners of the infected farms who had come back from traveling in China before outbreaks. This was supported by the genetic typing of CSF viruses isolated from the pigs of infected farms. All the virus isolates of 2002 outbreak were found to be genetic type 2, whereas the viruses isolated before 2000 were type 3 and the reference strains, such as attenuated live vaccine virus (LOM strain) and high virulent challenge virus (ALD strain), were type 1. Accordingly, we concluded that the 2002 CSF outbreak must have been caused by a newly introduced virus from overseas and the type 3 virus must have been eradicated after the last outbreak of 1999 by the national CSF eradication campaign which were implemented since 1996. Based on the combined analysis of epidemiological data and genetic typing, the transmission routes of classical swine fever virus were found to be the movement of vehicles (60%) and persons (10%), neighbourhood spread (20%) and unknown (10%). It is expected that the analyzed data and findings of classical swine fever outbreak epidemic could be very useful to establish the disease control and eradication program for the country in the future.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.141-147
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• 2009

In Korea, burial is the most common method of disposing animal carcasses culled due to brucellosis infection. However, burial has many disadvantages such as shortage of appropriate burial sites, possibile pollution of ground water supply, and negative view of the public. In this study, we have reviewed 3 legal methods for disposing bovine carcasses, which are burial, incineration, and rendering. We also described the overall process, advantages and disadvantages, and required costs for each method. About 75% of bovine brucellosis outbreak farms had less than 3 reactors, and in our study, rendering required the least amount of cost for farms with a small number of reactors (1-3 heads). Our findings suggest that the use of rendering should be encouraged for farms with bovine brucellosis and other methods considered only if rendering is inappropriate.