• Title/Summary/Keyword: contagious diseases

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Reasonable Solutions for Legal Disputes and Regulations on Epidemics (감염병 관련 법적 분쟁과 규제에 관한 합리적 해결방안)

  • Lee, Kyunghwan;Kim, Taehwan;Kim, Mannoh;Han, Sunwoo
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.150-166
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    • 2016
  • In the aftermath of a recent outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), legal matters on the spread of epidemics have emerged as major social issues in Korea, with the awareness that rampant contagious diseases are disasters in society. Problems arose over damages arising from patients who contract infectious diseases, compensation for people under quarantine and for a partial, or entire, shutdown of hospitals, and information disclosure on infectious diseases. As epidemic-linked problems have never been socially disputed in Korea, the relevant legal issues appear to be studied comparatively less than other areas. As interests are heightened over legal issues on infectious illnesses amid the MERS scare, in-depth, further research on such legal issues should be conducted in an utmost effort to prevent and make preparations for epidemics which potentially become a social disaster, such as new Hong Kong flu, Ebola virus and Zika virus.

Novel respiratory infectious diseases in Korea

  • Kim, Hyun Jung
    • Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.286-295
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    • 2020
  • Respiratory infections are very common and highly contagious. Respiratory infectious diseases affect not only the person infected but also the family members and the society. As medical sciences advance, several diseases have been conquered; however, the impact of novel infectious diseases on the society is enormous. As the clinical presentation of respiratory infections is similar regardless of the pathogen, the causative agent is not distinguishable by symptoms alone. Moreover, it is difficult to develop a cure because of the various viral mutations. Various respiratory infectious diseases ranging from influenza, which threaten the health of mankind globally, to the coronavirus disease 2019, which resulted in a pandemic, exist. Contrary to human expectations that development in health care and improvement in hygiene will conquer infectious diseases, humankind's health and social systems are threatened by novel infectious diseases. Owing to the development of transport and trading activity, the rate of spread of new infectious diseases is increasing. As respiratory infections can threaten the members of the global community at any time, investigations on preventing the transmission of these diseases as well as development of effective antivirals and vaccines are of utmost importance and require a worldwide effort.

A Survey of Epidemic Diseases in Horses Imported into South Korea between 2003 and 2008 (2003년부터 2008년까지 한국에 수입된 말에서 전염성 질병의 실태조사)

  • Lee, Sang-Kyu;Han, Jae-Ik;Yun, Seon-Jong;Kang, Hyun-Gu
    • Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.268-272
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    • 2010
  • South Korea is susceptible to foreign diseases due to its high rate of livestock importation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the infectious conditions of contagious disease of horses imported into South Korea from other countries. The horses were tested for contagious equine metritis (CEM), equine infectious anemia (EIA), equine piroplasmosis (EP), equine viral arteritis (EVA), vesicular stomatitis (VS), dourine, and glanders. The prevalence of these infectious diseases in 6,650 horses imported from 24 countries between 2003 and 2008 was reviewed by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. Seropositive results were found for EIA, EP, EVA, dourine and glanders: 3/6,189 serum samples tested were EIA-positive, 37/6,005 samples tested by complement fixation (CF) were EP-positive, 28/6,043 samples tested by virus neutralization (VN) were EVA-positive, 4/2,071 serum samples tested by CF were positive for dourine, and 4/1,950 samples tested by CF were positive for glanders. No contagious equine metritis or vesicular stomatitis was detected. In total, 76/6,650 imported horses tested positive for an infectious disease. Notably, 4/6 sera (66.6%), all taken from horses imported from Tanzania, were positive for glanders. This is the first report of glanders infection in horses from Tanzania since 1996.

Prevalence and co-infection status of brucellosis and tuberculosis in Hanwoo in Jeonnam province

  • Jun-Cheol Lee;Yeong-Bin Baek;Jun-Gyu Park;Sang-Ik Park
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.283-291
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    • 2023
  • Brucellosis and tuberculosis are major infectious and contagious bacterial diseases in cattle. These diseases are malicious diseases that must be inspected at the slaughterhouse of cattle in accordance with the practice of quarantine in Korea. Furthermore, both diseases lead to abortion, reproductive disorder, and calf disease, causing major difficulty in the breeding of Korean Native cattle (Hanwoo), a representative industrial animal currently being raised in Korea. Co-infections of these diseases intensify clinical symptoms such as abortion and have a particularly significant effect on increasing mortality. Thus, serological tests were performed in Hanwoo, to establish the association of co-infection between brucellosis and tuberculosis in cattle. ELISA and PCR tests were conducted on blood samples collected from a total of 102 cattle in Jeonnam province, Korea, to detect brucellosis and tuberculosis infections. The PCR results revealed that 41 samples tested positive for Brucella abortus (B. abortus) infection (40.20%), and 5 samples tested positive for Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) (4.90%) infection confirmed by PCR. Notably, 9.76% (4/41) of the cattle infected with brucellosis also tested positive for tuberculosis. In conclusion, this study highlights the co-infection of brucellosis and tuberculosis among Hanwoo cattle in Jeonnam province, which is expected to contribute to our understanding of disease transmission, pathogenicity, the establishment of future prevention strategies.

Development of Livestock Monitoring Device based on Biosensors for Preventing Livestock Diseases

  • Park, Myeong-Chul;Jung, Hyon-Chel;Ha, Ok-Kyoon
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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    • v.21 no.10
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    • pp.91-98
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    • 2016
  • Outbreaks of highly contagious livestock diseases can cause direct and indirect economic impacts such as lower productivity of cattle farms, fall in tourism in damaged areas and countries, and decline in exports. They also incur tremendous social costs associated with disease elimination and restoration work. Thus, it is essential to prevent livestock diseases through monitoring and prediction efforts. Currently, however, it is still difficult to provide accurate predictive information regarding occurrences of livestock diseases, because existing cattle health monitoring or forecasting systems are only limited to monitor environmental conditions of livestock barns and check activities of cattle by using a pedometer or thermal image. In this paper, we present a biosensor-based cattle health monitoring system capable of collecting bio-signals of farm animals in an effective way. For the presented monitoring system, we design an integrated monitoring device consisting of a sensing module to measure bio-signals of cattle such as the heartbeat, the breath rate and the momentum, as well as a Zigbee module designed to transmit the biometric data based on Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). We verify the validity of the monitoring system by the comparison of the correlations of designed device with a commercial ECG equipment through analyzing the R-peak of measured signals.

The Analysis of an Influenza Epidemic System by means of the State-space Approach (상태공간법에 의한 인플루엔자 유행모델의 해석)

  • 정형환;이상효
    • 전기의세계
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.66-71
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    • 1977
  • A mathematical model, which can be used for the study of an influenza epidemic, was derived. The model of influenza takes into full consideration the incubation period and inapparent infection. That was analysed by means of digital computer under the conditions of changing the infection rate, .betha., from 4 to 5, for three types of communities (First type: the initial distribution of population, x$_{1}$(0)=89% susceptibles, x$_{2}$(0)=3% incubatives, x$_{3}$(0)=0.5% carriers, x$_{4}$(0)=7.5% immunes; Second type: x$_{1}$(0)=79%, x$_{2}$(0)=3%, x$_{3}$(0)=0.5%, x$_{4}$(0)=17.5%; Third type: x$_{1}$(0)=69%, x$_{2}$(0)=3%, x$_{3}$(0)=0.5%, x$_{4}$(0)=27.5%, considering the rate of population increase, in Seoul. In conclusion, the outcomes of this study are summarized as follow. 1) The new model is quite reasonable in representing many phenomena connected with influenza spread. 2) The more influenza does prevail, the smaller the valve of attack rate becomes, while the contagious period becomes slightly longer. 3) The average infection rate, .betha., of influenza is approximately 5 per week time and X$_{4}$(0) is about 27.5 percent of the total population in Seoul spring 1961. 4) The number of carriers of influenza in Seoul spring 1961 becomes maximum within approximately 2.4 weeks after the attack of diseases. 5) About 68 percent of all cases in the contagious period is infected with influenza from 5 to 15 days after the attack of diseases. The auther believes that the method to study the influenza models in this paper will be helpful to study the characteristics of other epidemics. It will also contribute to public healthe management and the preventive policy decision against epidemics.

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A Study on the Occupational Diseases of the Dental Technicians and the Related Factors in Korea (우리 나라 치과기공사의 직업성 질병과 관련요인에 대한 조사연구)

  • 임병철;민경진
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.141-156
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    • 2001
  • This study was performed to identify the occupational diseases in the dental technicians working in Korea, and to elucidate the main related affecting factors for the occurrence of the occupational diseases. The research was carried out using a mail questionnaire and data collection was done for two months from April 15, 2000. The questionnaires were delivered to 1000 dental technicians working at 250 dental laboratories which were chosen among the total 1330 dental laboratories in south Korea. And 763 questionnaires were collected, then 739 questionnaires were used for a logistic and a multiple regression analyses. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: 1. The occupational diseases in the dental technicians included pneumoconiosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, hyposmia, allergic dermatitis, eczema, contagious dermatitis, central nervous disorder, dysfunction of finger, vertebral disorder, dysfunction of interphalangeal joint, ophthalmitis, auditory dysfunction, otitismedia, optic trauma, and bum. 2. The main related affecting factors for the occurrence of the occupational diseases in the dental technicians were elucidated as follows: On the ccurrence of chronic bronchitis, vibration of equipment and job career were affected positively. On the ccurrence of asthma, job career and career on current working part were affected positively, but exhaust ventilation, work hour were affected negatively. On the occurrence of eczema, career on current working part and vibration of equipment were affected positively, but personal protective equipment, local exhaust ventilation, isolation of gas source were affected negatively. And eczema was occurred more in methyl methacrylate work than in any other work part. On the occurrence of finger dysfunction, vibration of equipment and noise of work place were affected positively. But personal protective equipment, local exhaust ventilation, isolation of dust and gas source were affected negatively. But finger dysfunction was occurred more in metal polishing than in any other work part. On the occurrence of auditory dysfunction, noise of work place were affected negatively. The results obtained in this study can give a valuable information for a prevention of the occupational diseases in the dental technicians working in Korea, and for keeping them in healthy. This study also can be helpful for a researcher who is aiming at a identification of occupational diseases and a elucidation of related affecting factors in a similar occupation.

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Evolving Problem Analyses of Recent Marek's Disease (최근 진화하는 마렉병의 원인 분석)

  • Jang, H.K.;Park, Y.M.;Cha, S.Y.;Park, J.B.
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.301-318
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    • 2007
  • Marek's disease (MD) is a highly contagious lymphoproliferative disease of poultry caused by the oncogenic herpesvirus designated Marek's disease virus (MDV). MD has a worldwide distribution and is thought to cause an annual loss over US$ one billion to the poultry industry. Originally described as a paralytic disease, today MD is mostly manifested as an acute disease with tumors in multiple visceral organs. MD is controlled essentially by the widespread use of live vaccines administered either in ovo into 18-day-old embryos or into chicks immediately after they hatch. In spite of the success of the vaccines in reducing the losses from the disease in the last 30 years, MDV strains have shown continuous evolution in virulence acquiring the ability to overcome the immune responses induced by the vaccines. During this period, different generations of MD vaccines have been introduced to protect birds from the increasingly virulent MDV strains. However, the virus will be countered each new vaccine strategy with ever more virulent strains. In spite of this concern, currently field problem from MD is likely to be controled by strategy of using bivalent vaccine. But, potential risk factors for outbreak of MD are still remained in this condition. The major factors can be thought that improper handling and incorrect administration of the vaccine, infection prior to establishment of immunity, suppression of immune system by environmental stress and outbreaks of more virulent MDV strain by using vaccine and genetic resistance of host.

Safety Estimation Index of Infectious Disease (COVID-19) in Workplaces (사업장에 적용 가능한 감염병(COVID-19) 위험성평가 지표 개발)

  • Kim, Ha Kyeong;Lee, Myoung Ha;Song, Hyung-Jun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.88-96
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    • 2022
  • Widespread infectious diseases are a concern for workers working in confined spaces. However, there is no risk assessment index for the risk of infectious disease in the workplace. Therefore, we propose a simple but effective index model to assess the risk of infectious diseases in the workplace. The proposed model identifies the risk of each workplace through an evaluation sheet comprising the frequency and intensity of the infectious disease. The intensity of an infectious disease is generally governed by the density of workers, whereas frequency is the sum of physical-e nvironmental and human management factors. By multiplying intensity and frequency, the risk of the workplace is derived. Through the proposed model, we evaluate the risks of workers at 15 different work sites. The proposed model clearly reveals what should be improved to keep workers safe from infectious diseases and will be helpful in assessing the risk of contagious disease at the work place.

A Study on "EuiBangShinGam" by Han Byung Lyun (한병련(韓秉璉)의 "의방신감(醫方新鑑)"과 일제강점기 전염병에 대한 인식)

  • Kim, Dan-Hee;Cha, Wung-Seok;Ahn, Sang-Woo;Kim, Nam-Il
    • Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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    • v.14 no.3
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    • pp.173-182
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    • 2008
  • "EuiBangShinGam" is a classic on oriental medicines written by Han Byung Lyun with the pen name Shin Oh in 1913. It was written under the base of the writer's own experience as well as in the light of 36 other classics on oriental medicines such as "DongEuiBoGam", Introduction to Medicine, and Complete Works of Jingyue. In an attempt to avoid difficult theories and list only the essential informations and formulas for clinical purposes, it attained its own characteristics of not only reorganizing DongEuiBoGam in a pragmatic way but also explaining diseases classified in western medicines in oriental medicines' point of view as well as suggesting medicine formulas regarding such explanations. As a result, it is a complete and efficient medical classic through which one can gain knowledge in both classic oriental medicines and combination of western and oriental medicines. Its special features are making a separate chapter for cholera and phthisis, which is also a contagious disease, and trying in the chapter to explain the disease s in words of oriental medicines; listing details of nine major epidemic and matching them with the diseases known in oriental medicines: and recording a case of enforcing sterilization and preventive injection against contagious diseases. Han Byung Lyun, the writ er of the book, was born in northern province of Ham Gyoung, Woong Bu, and the date of death is unknown. He is one of the eight members who conceived and started the idea of organizing the Organization of Practioners of Oriental Medicines, which was a nationwide organization under the motive of restoring Oriental Medicines against the policy under the colonial government of Japan. Living a era of Japanese Imperialism, he stressed the need to accept western medicines if its beneficial to oriental medicines in order to develop oriental medicines for progressive causes. This reflects that he was a person who tried in various ways to extend oriental medicines to another level by facing up to the reality and coming up with a measure to cope up with it. In fact, he was a oriental medicine doctor who tried to protect oriental medicines by founding academic organizations, publishing academic magazines, and writing himself many papers related to oriental medicines. EuiBangShinGam can he summarized as a classic on traditional korean medicine through which one can find out about realities of Japan Imperialism and the attempts of oriental medicine practitioners under the colonial policies of Japan to make oriental medicines more developed by adding one's own thoughts as well as keeping the old, and adjusting to such situations.

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