• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.196-200
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• 2006

Congenital toxoplasmosis is caused by vertical transmission of Toxoplasma gondii from mother during pregnancy. The broad clinical spectrum of congenital toxoplasmosis ranges from stillbirth or death shortly after birth to survival with either cerebral damage or mild or subclinical disease, consisting usually of ocular involvement. The authors experienced a case of congenital toxoplasmosis in prematurity baby whose mother had lived recently in Africa. The diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis was confirmed on the basis of clinical finding of chorioretinitis and positive serologic test for toxoplasma IgM antibody.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2011

To examine the seroprevalence of Neospora caninum (N. caninum) infections in cattle raised at farms where an abortion had previously occurred in Gongju city and Yeongi-gun of Chungnam Province, 280 head of cattle from six farms were examined by ELISA. Thirty-two pregnant cattle from four farms were examined to determine the abortion rate in N. caninum-infected pregnant cattle and the infection pattern in newborn calves. The six farms where the abortions had previously occurred demonstrated positive reactions to N. caninum. Although the mean seropositive rate of the six farms was 17.5%, the range of seropisitivity was 3.4-57.1% due to the difference in seroprevalence between farms. The general pattern of seropositivity in cows was higher than in heifers. In addition, the abortion rate of N. caninumpositive in 18 out of 32 pregnant dams raised in four farms was 16.7%. The seroprevalence of newborn calves from N. caninum-positive pregnant animals differed according to the farm but was 86.7% overall. In contrast, 14 newborn calves from the N. caninum-negative pregnant cattle showed negative responses. This suggests that N. caninum is endemic and occurs through vertical transmission from chronically-infected dams. Therefore, aborted dams should be discarded.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.201-211
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• 1997

This study was an evaluation study of AIDS education program. The purpose of this study was to clarify the education effects on AIDS for health care workers to develop a better next education program. This study was done by self reporting with a 67 items of structured questionnaire by 431 health care workers included doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and health educators. Data were collected at the time of completion of each AIDS education with the help of education program manager. Both the AIDS related knowledge score and the acceptance attitudes score were significantly higher in the male group, in the medical institution employer group, in the group who have met the HIV infected person, who has known the HIV positive person, and the group of laboratory technician, but the AIDS prevention intention score was statistically higher in the group of female and laboratory technician group. The post education scores of AIDS related knowledge. acceptance attitudes, and preventive intention were statistically higher than those of the preeducation. The most increased item among AIDS prevention intention list was 'I will provide the meeting between the HIV infected persons and the public (+21.9%)'. But even the decreased item among AIDS prevention intention list was 'I will advice to female not to have extra marital sexual contact to avoid AIDS(-3.1%)'. It could be concluded that the health care workers were ignorant of vertical transmission of AIDS, they were afraid of disclosing the infection status, and have less AIDS prevention intention. Therefore it is needed to take an assessment process before each new education trategy to increase AIDS related the effect of the education on AIDS.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.91-95
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• 2005

The familial environment may also play an important role in the epidemiology of HCV infection through vertical and horizontal transmission by infected household members. However, it is still controversial whether familial clustering of HCV occurs. We experienced a case of familial clustering of hepatitis C virus. A 10-year old girl presented with nausea, vomiting and anorexia for a month was diagnosed as hepatitis C. Her mother, grandmother, a maternal aunt and her daughter had contracted with HCV. Her laboratory findings showed AST/ALT 63/122 IU/L, positive anti-HCV Ab and HCV RNA ($3.54{\times}10^5copies/mL$). Pathologic findings of the liver biopsy revealed chronic hepatitis with minimal lobular activity, mild porto-periportal activity and mild portal fibrosis. After treatment with interferon-${\alpha}$ 2b for 6 months, the clinical symptoms and laboratory findings were normalized.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2002

Hepatitis B viral infection which affect about 10% of Korean population manifests asymptomatic carrier, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis and even associates with hepatocellular carcinoma. Clinical manifestations induced by hepatitis B virus vary depending on the degree of immune response by cytotoxic T cells against viral epitope-presenting liver cells. Since hepatitis B virus presents high rate of mutaton that might change the presented epitope and eventually alter immune response, viral mutations, especially in promoters and enhancers, have an important implication in hepatic inflammation and viral replication. To identify mutations related to the hepatic inflammation, we investigated sequence variations of hepatitis B viral promotor regions in the presence or absence of symptoms in hepatitis B carriers. For this, sera from persistently hepatitis B virus-infected mother-child pairs were collected. After PCR amplifiation of all hepatitis B viral promoters (C promoter, S1 promoter, S2/S promoter, X promoter) using serum DNA from each pair, viral promotors were sequenced by automatic sequencer and then sequence data were analyzed by ClustalW. In most cases, the dominant type of maternal virus was transmitted to the child. However, in some children, some new host specific viral variants could be observed in Cp, S1p and S2/Sp. The mutations in C promoter did not seem to be vertically transmitted but arose in new host independently after the wild type had been transmitted. Enhancer I containing X promoter revealed high host specific variations as has been reported before. Two S promoters, S1p and S2/Sp, have shown some point mutations in children, but no deletion mutations were detected as in chronic hepatitis patients in whom deletion mutations are frequently found. In conclusion, the children with the vertically transmitted hepatitis B virus mostly retain the dominant type virus that had been transmitted. However, host specific variants tended to accumulate over time, possibly as clinical symptoms develop.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.56-78
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• 1998

Objective: Chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB) occurs in 6% to 10% of population in Korea. In ethinic communities where prevalence of chronic infection is high such as Korea, transmission of hepatitis B infection is either vertical (ie, by perinatal infection) or by close family contact (usually from mothers or siblings) during the first 5 years of life. The development of chronic hepatitis B infection is increasingly more common the earlier a person is exposed to the virus, particularly in fetal and neonatal life. And it progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, especially in severe liver damage and perinatal infection. Histopathology of CHB is important when evaluating the final outcomes. A numerical scoring system which is a semiquantitatively assessed objective reproducible classification of chronic viral hepatitis, is a valuable tool for statistical analysis when predicting the outcome and evaluating antiviral and other therapies. In this study, a numerical scoring system (Ludwig system) was applied and compared with the conventional histological classification of De Groute. And the comparative analysis of cinical findings, family history, serology, and liver function test by histopathological findings in chronic hepatitis B of children was done. Methods: Ninety nine patients [mean age=9 years (range=17 months to 16 years)] with clinical, biochemical, serological and histological patterns of chronic HBV infection included in this study. Five of these children had hepatocelluar carcinoma. They were 83 male and 16 female children. They all underwent liver biopsies and histologic evaluation was performed by one pathologist. The biopsy specimens were classified, according to the standard criteria of De Groute as follows: normal, chronic lobular hepatitis (CLH), chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH), mild to severe chronic active hepatitis (CAH), or active cirrhosis, inactive cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). And the biopsy specimens were also assessed and scored semiquantitatively by the numerical scoring Ludwig system. Serum HBsAg, anti-HBs, HBeAg, anti-HBe, anti-HBc (IgG, IgM), and HDV were measured by radioimunoassays. Results: Male predominated in a proportion of 5.2:1 for all patients. Of 99 patients, 2 cases had normal, 2 cases had CLH, 22 cases had CPH, 40 cases had mild CAH, 19 cases had moderate CAH, 1 case had severe CAH, 7 cases had active cirrhosis, 1 case had inactive cirrhosis, and 5 cases had HCC. The mean age, sex distribution, symptoms, signs, and family history did not differ statistically among the different histologic groups. The numerical scoring system was correlated well with the conventional histological classification. The histological activity evaluated by both the conventional classification and the scoring system was more severe as the levels of serum aminotransferases were higher. In contrast, the levels of serum aminotransferases were not useful for predicting the degree of histologic activity because of its wide range overlapping. When the histological activity was more severe and especially the cirrhosis more progressing, the prothrombin time was more prolonged. The histological severity was inversely related with the duration of seroconversion of HBeAg. Conclusions: The histological activity could not be accurately predicted by clinical and biochemical findings, but by the proper histological classification of the numerical scoring system for the biopsy specimen. The numerical scoring system was correlated well with the conventional histological classification, and it seems to be a valuable tool for the statistical analysis when predicting the outcome and evaluating effects of antiviral and other therapies in chronic hepatitis B in children.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 2010

A survey of transovarially transmitted diseases, including salmonellosis [(pullorum disease; PD)/(fowl typhoid; FT)], mycoplasmosis, avian infectious anemia (CIA), and fowl adenovirus infection was conducted in the breeder chickens from August to December in 2009. The numbers of flocks sampled out were: Grand Parents Stock (GPS), 45; Parents Stock (PS) 1,018, Baeksemi breeder (BSB) 54. The seroprevalence of salmonellosis (PD/FT) were 0% (GPS), 3.2% (PS), and 3% (BSB), respectively. A total of 983 chicken farms were affected with FT outbreaks between 2000 and 2008. The incidence of FT in commercial broilers, Baeksemi, commercial layers, native chickens, and broiler breeders was 44.3%, 26.2%, 15.7%, 12.6% and 1.08%, respectively. Of the affected broilers, over 90% birds were under 2 weeks of age, indicating it was possible that they were infected with S. gallinarum via vertical transmission. The sero-positive flocks against Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) were 71.1% (GPS), 88.7% (PS), 88.7% (BSB), while the rates of positive flocks against Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) were 86.0% (GPS), 77.0% (PS), and 98.0% (BSB). In GP and parent farms, the detection rates on specific genes of CIA virus were 19/45 (42.2%), and 169/1039 (18.0%), respectively, whereas the seroprevalence of CIA were 86.0% in GPS and 93.7% in PS flocks. In addition, positive flocks of fowl adenoviruses were 4.4% (GPS), 2.7% (PS) and 9.35% (BSB), respectively. As the results, avian mycoplasmosis and CIA have been more prevailing in chicken breeder than avian salmonellosis and fowl adenovirus infection in Korea.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.96-103
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• 1998

Purpose : We performed this study to evaluate the immune responses and protective efficacies of the HBV vaccine in infants born from hepatitis B virus(HBV) carrier mothers. Methods : Seventy eight infants born from HBV carrier mothers, who were able to follow up for 12months in the Catholic University St. Vincents hospital, were involved in this study from July 1995 to December 1996. Samples were collected at birth, 4, 8 and 12months after injection of HBIG and HBV heat-inactivated plasma derived vaccines. We evaluated the changes and relationships of viral markers detecting by enzyme immunoassay and radioimmunoassay between HBV carrier mothers and their infants. Results : 1) A total of 5.0%(106/2,117) of pregnant women were found to be a HBV carrier. The rates of HBeAg positive and negative were 38.5%(37/96) and 61.5%(59/96), respectively. 2) The seroconversion rates of anti-HBs with infants of HBV carrier mothers at 4, 8 and 12 months were 85.9%(67/78), 75.6%(59/78) and 73.1%(57/78), respectively. Although these were statistically significant differences(P<0.05), they were not related to HBeAg status of the mothers. The geometric mean titers of anti-HBs at 8 and 12 months were significantly higher than at 4 months, statistically(P<0.05). The protective efficacy of the HBV vaccine and HBIG at 12 months in infants from HBeAg positive and negative mothers were 89.8% and 100%, respectively. 3) Five of 78(6.4%) infants became infected by HBV from only HBeAg positive mothers during the follow up period of 12 months. Three of 5 infected infants became HBV carriers. HBsAg positive at birth from HBeAg positive and negative mother were 4 infants, respectively. Three of 4 infants became infected by HBV from only HBeAg positive mothers. Conclusion : We confirmed that the seroconversion rate of HBV heat-inactivated plasma derived vaccine which was one of other vaccines manufacturing in Korea was 85.9%. The protective efficacy of this HBV vaccine and HBIG at 12 months in infants from HBeAg positive and negative mothers were 89.8% and 100%, respectively.