• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.431-439
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• 2023

Objectives: Numerous studies have explored the causes and spread of outbreaks, yet there is a lack of research on post-coronavirus disease 2019 condition (PCC) in Korea. The goal of this study was to identify the various types of PCC and associated factors in discharged patients and to provide directions for the ongoing health management of confirmed patients. Methods: A telephone survey was conducted among 680 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients diagnosed between July 7, 2021 and August 26, 2021, in Dangjin, Chungnam, Korea. A descriptive analysis of characteristics, univariate analysis, and regression were performed using data from basic epidemiological surveys conducted at the time of diagnosis and post-discharge questionnaires. Results: Of the 585 patients who responded, 159 (27.2%) developed PCC. Of the 211 patients with no initial symptoms, 27 (12.8%) developed PCC, versus 132 (35.3%) of the 374 patients with initial symptoms. Among the initial symptoms, fever or chills, cough or sputum, loss of smell, and sore throat were associated with PCC. Compared to patients with less than 10 days of hospitalization, those with a hospitalization period of 21 days to 30 days (odds ratio [OR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0 to 5.2) and 31 days or more (OR, 5.8; 95% CI, 1.9 to 18.1) had a higher risk of PCC. Conclusions: More than a quarter of COVID-19 patients, including those who had no initial symptoms, experienced PCC in Korea. People with the initial symptoms of fever, chills, and respiratory symptoms and those who had prolonged hospital stays had a high risk of PCC.

• Clinical Nutrition Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.269-282
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• 2023

Vitamin D participates in the biological function of the innate and adaptive immune system and inflammation. We aim to specify the effectiveness of the vitamin D supplementation on the side effects BioNTech, Pfizer vaccination, and immunoglobulin G response against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in subjects tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this multi-center randomized clinical trial, 498 people tested positive for COVID-19 were divided into 2 groups, receiving vitamin D capsules or a placebo (1 capsule daily, each containing 600 IU of vitamin D) over 14-16 weeks. Anthropometric indices and biochemical parameters were measured before and after the second dose of vaccination. Fourteen to 16 weeks after supplementation, the intervention group had an immunoglobulin G (IgG) increase of 10.89 ± 1.2 g/L, while the control group had 8.89 ± 1.3 g/L, and the difference was significant between both groups (p = 0.001). After the second dose of vaccination, the supplement group significantly increased their 25-hydroxy vitamin D from initially 28.73 ± 15.6 ng/mL and increased to 46.48 ± 27.2 ng/mL, and the difference between them was significant. Those with a higher body mass index (BMI) had the most of symptoms, and the difference of side effects according to BMI level was significantly different. In 8 weeks after supplementation obese participants had the lowest IgG levels than overweight or normal subjects. The proportion of all types of side effects on the second dose was significantly diminished compared with the first dose in the intervention group. Supplementation of 600 IU of vitamin D3 can reduce post-vaccination side effects and increase IgG levels in participants who received BioNTech, Pfizer vaccine.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1478-1499
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• 2024

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. COVID-19 become an active epidemic disease due to its spread around the globe. The main causes of the spread are through interaction and transmission of the droplets through coughing and sneezing. The spread can be minimized by isolating the susceptible patients. However, it necessitates remote monitoring to check the breathing issues of the patient remotely to minimize the interactions for spread minimization. Thus, in this article, we offer a wearable-IoTs-centered framework for remote monitoring and recognition of the breathing pattern and abnormal breath detection for timely providing the proper oxygen level required. We propose wearable sensors accelerometer and gyroscope-based breathing time-series data acquisition, temporal features extraction, and machine learning algorithms for pattern detection and abnormality identification. The sensors provide the data through Bluetooth and receive it at the server for further processing and recognition. We collect the six breathing patterns from the twenty subjects and each pattern is recorded for about five minutes. We match prediction accuracies of all machine learning models under study (i.e. Random forest, Gradient boosting tree, Decision tree, and K-nearest neighbor. Our results show that normal breathing and Bradypnea are the most correctly recognized breathing patterns. However, in some cases, algorithm recognizes kussmaul well also. Collectively, the classification outcomes of Random Forest and Gradient Boost Trees are better than the other two algorithms.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2024

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly formidable disease. Globally, multiple vaccines have been developed to prevent and manage this disease. However, the periodic mutations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants cast doubt on the effectiveness of commonly used vaccines in mitigating severe disease in the Indian population. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the BBV152 vaccine and ChAdOx1-S vaccine in preventing severe forms of the disease. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study, based on hospital records, was conducted on 204 vaccinated COVID-19 patients using a consecutive sampling approach. Data on their vaccination status, comorbidities, and high-resolution computed tomography lung reports' computed tomography severity scores were extracted from their medical records. Fisher's exact test and binomial logistic regression analysis were employed to assess the independent associations of various factors with the dependent variables. Results: Of the 204 records, 57.9% represented males, with a mean age of 61.5±9.8 years. Both vaccines demonstrated effective protection against severe illness (90.2%), with BBV152 offering slightly better protection compared to ChAdOx1-S. Male gender, partial vaccination, comorbid conditions, and the type of vaccine were identified as independent predictors of severe lung involvement. Conclusion: This study indicates that both vaccines were highly effective (90%) in preventing severe forms of the disease in fully vaccinated individuals. When comparing the two vaccines, BBV152 was slightly more effective than ChAdOx1-S in preventing severe COVID-19.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.22.1-22.25
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• 2022

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread over the world causing a pandemic which is still ongoing since its emergence in late 2019. A great amount of effort has been devoted to understanding the pathogenesis of COVID-19 with the hope of developing better therapeutic strategies. Transcriptome analysis using technologies such as RNA sequencing became a commonly used approach in study of host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2. Although substantial amount of information can be gathered from transcriptome analysis, different analysis tools used in these studies may lead to conclusions that differ dramatically from each other. Here, we re-analyzed four RNA-sequencing datasets of COVID-19 samples including human bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, nasopharyngeal swabs, lung biopsy and hACE2 transgenic mice using the same standardized method. The results showed that common features of COVID-19 include upregulation of chemokines including CCL2, CXCL1, and CXCL10, inflammatory cytokine IL-1β and alarmin S100A8/S100A9, which are associated with dysregulated innate immunity marked by abundant neutrophil and mast cell accumulation. Downregulation of chemokine receptor genes that are associated with impaired adaptive immunity such as lymphopenia is another common feather of COVID-19 observed. In addition, a few interferon-stimulated genes but no type I IFN genes were identified to be enriched in COVID-19 samples compared to their respective control in these datasets. These features are in line with results from single-cell RNA sequencing studies in the field. Therefore, our re-analysis of the RNA-seq datasets revealed common features of dysregulated immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and shed light to the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2020

It is well established that cancer patients are more susceptible to infection because of the immunosuppressive status caused by both disease itself and anticancer treatment, including surgery and chemoradiation. Head and neck cancer (HNC) patients are generally at high-risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and serious adverse outcomes. Although there is an urgent need for guidance in the delivery of safe, quality oncologic care, no international consented recommendation addressed the management of HNC patients in COVID-19 due to limited data. In this review, we summarized the consideration for head and neck oncologic care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the data and the very recent recommendations from the Korean Cancer Association and National Cancer Center. COVID-19 should be taken into consideration in the comprehensive management of HNC patients, and multidisciplinary evaluation of multilevel surgical-risks, discussion of optimized strategy, and shared-decision-making with the patient are needed to maximize both the safety from infectious pandemic and outcome of surgical and oncologic care.

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

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2021

Objectives: Jeju Province in Korea reported 627 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases between January 20, 2020, and March 31, 2021. This study analyzed the sources of infection among confirmed cases in Jeju Province, a self-governed island. Methods: The sources of infection were broadly categorized as follows: (1) infections from overseas (confirmed patients who reported travel overseas or contact with overseas travelers); (2) infections from outside Jeju Province (confirmed patients who had visited other provinces or had contact with individuals who had traveled to other provinces in Korea); and (3) unknown sources of infection (confirmed patients who were infected following contact with an infected person whose source of infection was unknown). The chi-square test was used to analyze the differences in the distributions of related variables for each source of infection. Results: Of the 627 confirmed cases, 38 (6.1%) were infections from overseas sources, 199 (31.7%) were from outside of Jeju Province, and 390 (62.2%) were from unknown sources. Jeju Province had no cases with an unknown source of infection during the first and second waves of the nationwide outbreak. Conclusions: Infections from overseas sources could be blocked from spreading to local communities in Jeju Province by conducting screening at the airport, along with the preemptive suspension of visa-free entry. In addition, considering the scale of the nationwide outbreak, measures must be established to delay outbreaks from unknown sources of infection caused by sources outside Jeju Province.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.12
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• pp.477-482
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• 2020

The childhood obesity pandemic has emerged as an important public health problem in many countries. Obese children are likely to become obese adults, and adult obesity is associated with an increased risk of morbidity. Therefore, controlling the childhood obesity epidemic has become a top public health priority worldwide. The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may significantly impede this important mission and constitute an unprecedented tragedy in the global battle against childhood obesity. This manuscript presents evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic will aggravate the childhood obesity epidemic and lead to significant weight gain in school children by creating an unprecedented obesogenic environment. Within the last few months, many countries took uncompromising measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including school closures and quarantine. While these steps are often necessary to ensure infection control, they may have a significant negative effect on children's mental and physical health. Physical, nutritional, and psychosocial factors that promote obesity in children during this special situation complementarily contribute to an unprecedented obesogenic environment. Large-scale quarantine and home confinement will impose new and unfamiliar stressors on children, thereby worsening the childhood obesity epidemic. Most importantly, adverse childhood events resulting from a predicted increase in domestic violence within the next few months will significantly contribute to this concern. The scenario presented in this review is of paramount public health importance and must be considered during future pandemic planning. Involved stakeholders, including governments, schools, and families, must make all possible efforts to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on childhood obesity.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2022

Background: There are regional variations in the incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which means that some regions are more exposed to the risk of COVID-19 than others. Therefore, this study aims to investigate regional variations in the incidence of COVID-19 in Korea and identify risk factors associated with the incidence of COVID-19 using community-level data. Methods: This study was conducted at the districts (si·gun·gu) level in Korea. Data of COVID-19 incidence by districts were collected from the official website of each province. Data was also obtained from the Korean Statistical Information Service and the Community Health Survey; socio-demographic factor, transmission pathway, healthcare resource, and factor in response to COVID-19. Community risk factors that drive the incidence of COVID-19 were selected using a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. Results: As of June 2021, the incidence of COVID-19 differed by more than 80 times between districts. Among the candidate factors, sex ratio, population aged 20-29, local financial independence, population density, diabetes prevalence, and failure to comply with the quarantine rules were significantly associated with COVID-19 incidence. Conclusion: This study suggests setting COVID-19 quarantine policy and allocating resources, considering the community risk factors. Protecting vulnerable groups should be a high priority for these policies.