• 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.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.589-596
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• 2018

Ticks are the vectors of various pathogens, threatening human health and animal production across the globe. Here, for the first time we detected Ricketssia spp., Borrelia spp. and protozoan in ticks from Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi Province of eastern China. In 3 habitat categories and on 12 host species, 311 ticks from 11 species were collected. Haemaphysalis longicornis was the predominant species, accounting for 55.63%, followed by Rhipicephalus microplus, Haemaphysalis flava and Ixodes granulatus. Of the collected ticks, 7.07% were positive for tick-borne pathogens, and H. longicornis and H. flava were found to be co-infected with Ricketssia spp. and protozoan. H. flava was the most detected positive for tick-borne pathogens, whereas H. longicornis had the lowest infection rate, and the difference in infection rates between tick species was significant (${\chi}^2=61.24$, P<0.001). Furthermore, adult ticks demonstrated remarkably greater infection rate than immature ticks (${\chi}^2=10.12$, P=0.018), meanwhile ticks on Erinaceidae showed significantly higher positivity than ticks collected on other host species (${\chi}^2=108.44$, P<0.001). Genetic fragment sequencing and analyses showed at least 4 pathogen species presence in ticks, namely Borrelia yangtzensis, Rickettsia slovaca or Rickettsia raoultii related genospecies, Babesia vogeli and Hepatozoon canis or Hepatozoon felis related genospecies. The finding indicates that the abundant ticks can carry diverse pathogens in Poyang Lake region, and pathogen infection is highly related to species, vertebrate hosts and life stages of ticks.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2022

Global efforts to identify groups at high risk for schistosomiasis have mainly concentrated on identifying their geographical distribution. Investigations on the socioeconomic characteristics of high-risk groups are relatively scarce. This study aimed to explore the associations between schistosomiasis among students and their parents' occupations. A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted targeting 105,167 students in 1,772 primary schools across Sudan in 2017. From these students, 100,726 urine and 96,634 stool samples were collected to test for Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni infection. A multi-level mixed effect analysis was used with age and sex as fixed factors, and school as a random factor. The odd ratios (ORs) of practicing open defecation among farmers' children were almost 5 times higher than their counterparts whose parents were government officials (OR=4.97, 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 4.57-5.42, P<0.001). The ORs of contacting water bodies for watering livestock among farmers' children were more than 4 times higher than those of children whose parents were government officials (OR=4.59, 95% CIs: 4.02-5.24, P<0.001). This study shows that schistosomiasis represents a disease of poverty and that farmers' children constituted a high-risk group.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.72-77
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• 2024

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) produces Shiga toxin, which causes diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and hemorrhagic uremic syndrome. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has designated EHEC as a legal infectious disease and has conducted laboratory surveillance. This study aimed to compare the demographic, epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of EHEC cases in Jeju Province between August 2017 and November 2023, notified by two registry routes. The data were sourced from the integrated disease health and health management system managed by the KCDC. Cases reported due to experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms, or contacts of each case were defined as the "symptomatic" group. In contrast, cases with positive findings during a health checkup or laboratory surveillance were defined as the "screening" group. The symptomatic and screening groups had 35 and eight patients, respectively. There were significant differences in the age and seasonal distribution. The selection group was 20-59 years old in the main age distribution and registered evenly throughout the four seasons. In comparison, the symptomatic group was younger or older and not registered in the winter. These findings may be used to establish a more appropriate surveillance system for diarrheal outbreaks.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2014

The prevalence of helminthic infections was surveyed on a total of 6,178 residents (males 2,549 and females 3,629) in 102 villages of 9 provinces in Lao PDR between 2007 and 2011 under the project of Korea-Laos Collaborative Project for Control of Foodborne Trematode Infections in Lao PDR. Fecal specimens were collected and examined by the Kato-Katz thick smear and Stoll's egg counting techniques. The overall liver/intestinal helminth egg positive rate was 71.9% with a single or mixed infections with Opisthorchis viverrini and minute intestinal flukes (Ov/MIF), Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworms, Trichuris trichiura, Trichostrongylus sp., echinostomes, Taenia spp., and others. Ov/MIF revealed the highest prevalence (55.6%) followed by hookworms (27.8%) and T. trichiura (6.5%). The endemic regions with the highest prevalence of Ov/MIF were Savannakhet, Khammouane, Vientiane (Nam Ngum), Champasak (Khong Island), and Saravane Province. High prevalences of A. lumbricoides (33.8%), hookworms (47.8%), and T. trichiura (32.6%) were observed in Phongsaly, Luang Prabang, and Vientiane (Nam Ngum) areas, respectively. The results of this study highlight helminth parasites of current public health significance in different areas of Lao PDR.

• 학교보건
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• s.17
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• pp.30-65
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• 1988

One of the first constitutional challenes to congressional legislation the area of school health came in 1967. The action of Ministry of Education for the school health progrom is within school health act constitued 20 Articles and ir\ts regulation of 14 Articles.This study was reviewed the school health act and its regulation for the developement of school healh program. The data were collected y 14 Boards of Education from November 1986 to Januar, 1987. The results of this sudy were identified the the articles with regard to health education activity, physical assessment activity, criteria of school health environment, control of communicable disease, First-Aid and clinic management by school nurses.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.280-280
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• 2001

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.320-321
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• 2002

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2023

Epidemiological control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is needed to estimate the infection period of confirmed cases and identify potential cases. The present study, targeting confirmed cases for which the time of COVID-19 symptom onset was disclosed, aimed to investigate the relationship between intervals (day) from symptom onset to testing the cycle threshold (CT) values of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Of the COVID-19 confirmed cases, those for which the date of suspected symptom onset in the epidemiological investigation was specifically disclosed were included in this study. Interval was defined as the number of days from symptom onset (as disclosed by the patient) to specimen collection for testing. A locally weighted regression smoothing (LOWESS) curve was applied, with intervals as explanatory variables and CT values (CTR for RdRp gene and CTE for E gene) as outcome variables. After finding its non-linear relationship, a polynomial regression model was applied to estimate the 95% confidence interval values of CTR and CTE by interval. The application of LOWESS in 331 patients identified a U-shaped curve relationship between the CTR and CTE values according to the number of interval days, and both CTR and CTE satisfied the quadratic model for interval days. Active application of these results to epidemiological investigations would minimize the chance of failing to identify individuals who are in contact with COVID-19 confirmed cases, thereby reducing the potential transmission of the virus to local communities.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.375-376
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• 2008

Recently the increase of natural disaster and man-made disaster, newly emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism attack changed the world in many aspects. So the Ministry of Health and Welfare and other related agencies are trying to solve the problems with disasters. We discussed these problems in the following eleven categories. (1) emergency medicine (2) communicable disease control, (3) food safety control, (4) public facilities safety, (5) social welfare facilities safety, (6) bioterrorism control, (7) geriatric health care, (8) insurance support, (9) overseas disaster victim support, (10) national organization protection, (11) fire fighter safety in forest fire. Through the reviews on the various kinds of disaster, we proposed the disaster control measure for the near future.