• Journal of Naturopathy
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.136-142
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• 2022

Background: We are necessarily considering changes in the parasite infection rate and methods in Korea from 1970 to the present from the perspective of natural healing. Purposes: This study was to investigate how the difference in the rate of reduction in infection rate has changed and progressed to the present. Methods: A literature review was conducted. Results: Until the 1970s, Korea had one of the highest parasite infection rates. The Parasitic Disease Prevention Act was enacted to control the infection rate in 1966. From 1969, the nationwide national parasite management project was conducted for all students twice a year to treat all parasitic eggs until 1995. In addition, the government commissioned the Korean Association for Parasite Eradication (KAPE) to conduct a national parasite infection survey eight times, from 1971 to 2012, every two years. As a result, the overall egg positive rate of parasite was 84.3% in 1971 but decreased to 2.6% in 2012. In addition, Ascaris lumbricoides, Paragonimus westermani, Taenia spp., and intestinal protozoa were significantly reduced nationwide. Conclusions: Successful control in Korea is judged to have achieved a successful effect by systematically managing national economic growth, social consensus on parasite eradication, improved professional parasite prevention guidelines, and supply of effective anthelminthics.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical manifestations, the patterns and the functional outcome of the amputations due to the diabetic foot complications. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients (50 feet) of diabetic foot amputations were followed for more than 1 year. The mean age was 62.5 years, and the mean follow-up period was 46 months. Retrospective analysis was performed using chart review and interview with the patients. The outcome was assessed with modified AOFAS scale. Results: The diabetic foot lesions were infection in 45 feet, gangrene in 35 feet and ulcer in 15 feet. Toe amputation was most commonly performed procedure (23 cases) followed by below knee and ray amputation. Postoperative modified AOFAS score was average 51.5 points, and 94% were satisfied with outcome. Minor amputations showed better outcome than the major amputations. Conclusion: Overall postoperative functional outcome was encouraging with high patient satisfaction rate (94%). Better outcome was obtained with the minor amputations.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.5-14
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• 2009

The availability of effective vaccines has had the most profound positive effect on improving the quality of public health by preventing infectious diseases. Despite many successful vaccines, there are still old and new emerging pathogens against which there is no vaccine available. A better understanding of how vaccines work for providing protection will help to improve current vaccines as well as to develop effective vaccines against pathogens for which we do not have a proper means to control. Recent studies have focused on innate immunity as the first line of host defense and its role in inducing adaptive immunity; such studies have been an intense area of research, which will reveal the immunological mechanisms how vaccines work for protection. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a family of receptors for pathogen-associated molecular patterns on cells of the innate immune system, play a critical role in detecting and responding to microbial infections. Importantly, the innate immune system modulates the quantity and quality of long-term T and B cell memory and protective immune responses to pathogens. Limited studies suggest that vaccines which mimic natural infection and/or the structure of pathogens seem to be effective in inducing long-term protective immunity. A better understanding of the similarities and differences of the molecular and cellular events in host responses to vaccination and pathogen infection would enable the rationale for design of novel preventive measures against many challenging pathogens.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.425-431
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• 2014

Leaf scald caused by the infection of Rhynchosporium secalis, is a worldwide crop disease resulting in significant loss of barley yield. In this study, a systematic sequencing of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was chosen to obtain a global picture of the assembly of genes involved in pathogenesis. To identify a large number of plant ESTs, which are induced at different time points, an amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) display of complementary DNA (cDNA) was utilized. Transcriptional changes of 140 ESTs were observed, of which 19 have no previously described function. Functional annotation of the transcripts revealed a variety of infection-induced host genes encoding classical pathogenesis-related (PR) or genes that play a role in the signal transduction pathway. The expression analyses by a semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed that Rar1 and Rpg4 are defense inducible genes, and were consistent with the cDNA-AFLP data in their expression patterns. Hence, the here presented transcriptomic approach provides novel global catalogue of genes not currently represented in the EST databases.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.89-110
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• 2012

Meningococcal Disease, manifesting as meningitis and septicemia, is a life-threatening bacterial infection that results in significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in childhood. Its epidemic potential and limited opportunities for clinical intervention due to its rapid course present unique public health and clinical challenges. Incidence is highest in infants and young children, with a secondary peak of risk in adolescents. Approximately 10% of cases are fatal and survivors can be left with serious and permanent sequelae including amputations, hearing loss and cognitive impairment. Transmission is only from human-to-human, by infected respiratory tract secretions or saliva and therefore crowding poses a tremendously elevated risk for disease development. Military recruits and university students are at high risk due to the high carriage rate in adolescents, their behavior patterns and close contact. Menveo$^{(R)}$ (Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics), a novel quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine directed against meningococcal serogroups A, C, W-135 and Y, has been shown to be immunogenic and well tolerated in all age groups and was recently licensed for use in Korea. Recent cases and deaths among military recruits drew public attention to their elevated risk and the Korean government has recommended vaccination of all new military recruits. Many Korean students seek to attend school, university, or language institutes in countries where routine meningococcal vaccination is required - clinicians should be aware of such requirements to ensure that students are vaccinated prior to arrival in the destination country.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2005

Before twentieth centuries and during early twentieth centuries, communicable diseases were the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Korea. But reliable data are not available. After 1975, the overall morbidity and mortality from communicable diseases, rapidly declined. Recently many new pathogenic microbes were recognized: L. monocytogenes, Hantaan virus, Y. pseudotuberculosis, P. multocida, L. pneumophilia, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), G. seoi, H. capsulatum, C. burnetii, V. cholerae O139, C. parvum, F. tularensis, E. coli O157:H7, B. burgdorferi, S. Typhimurium DT104, Rotavirus, hepatitis C virus and so on. Since the first HIV infection recognized in 1985, the reported cases of infection and deaths from HIV/AIDS have been steady increased each year. Legionnaire's disease, E. coli O157:H7 colitis, listeriosis and crytosporidiasis have been occurring just sporadically among immunocompromized cases. Many re-emerging communicable diseases were occurred in Korea: leptospirosis, malaria, endemic typhus, cholera, tsutsugamushi disease, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, shigellosis, mumps, measles, acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, brucellosis and so on. Leptospirosis and tsutsugamushi diseases have been noticed as major public health problems since 1980s. The malaria that had been virtually disappeared for a decade has reappeared from 1993 with striking increase of patients in recent 3-4 years. The distributions of salmonella and shigella serotypes have been changed a lot in recent few decades. Furthermore rapid emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains induces more difficult and complex problems in control of communicable diseases. We must recognize on the importance of environment and ecosystem conservation and careful prescription of anti-microbial agent in order to prevent communicable diseases.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.435-444
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• 2018

Receptor-like proteins (RLPs) are involved in plant development and disease resistance. Only some of the RLPs in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) have been functionally characterized though 176 genes encoding RLPs, which have been identified in the tomato genome. To further understand the role of RLPs in tomato, we performed genome-guided classification and transcriptome analysis of these genes. Phylogenic comparisons revealed that the tomato RLP members could be divided into eight subgroups and that the genes evolved independently compared to similar genes in Arabidopsis. Based on location and physical clustering analyses, we conclude that tomato RLPs likely expanded primarily through tandem duplication events. According to tissue specific RNA-seq data, 71 RLPs were expressed in at least one of the following tissues: root, leaf, bud, flower, or fruit. Several genes had expression patterns that were tissue specific. In addition, tomato RLP expression profiles after infection with different pathogens showed distinguish gene regulations according to disease induction and resistance response as well as infection by bacteria and virus. Notably, Some RLPs were highly and/or unique expressed in susceptible tomato to pathogen, suggesting that the RLP could be involved in disease response, possibly as a host-susceptibility factor. Our study could provide an important clues for further investigations into the function of tomato RLPs involved in developmental and response to pathogens.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8837-8842
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• 2014

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important cause of liver cancer in Thailand. The highest prevalence of anti-HCV positive among Thai blood donors is found in the northeastern region. The present analysis of the genotype distribution among anti-HCV positive northeastern-Thai blood donors was conducted to provide a base for the epidemiological pattern of HCV infection in this region. Materials and Methods: A total of 112 HCV seropositive healthy blood donors were randomly selected and tested for the presence of HCV-RNA by RT-PCR. HCV-RNA positive samples were genotyped by direct sequencing at core region genomes and confirmed by phylogenetic analysis. Results: HCV viremia was found in 94.6% (106/112) of HCV seropositive blood donors. There were 3 major genotypes distributed among this population. HCV genotype 3a was the most prevalent (71.7%) followed by genotypes 1a (7.5%), 1b (7.5%), 6i (3.8%), 6f (2.8%) and 6n (1.9%). Conclusions: HCV genotype 3a in asymptomatic infections in northeastern Thailand is significantly higher than other previous reports. Subgenotype 6 prevalence is less than in neighboring countries and distribution patterns differ. The findings are relevant as predictors for using interferon therapy in this population.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.413-415
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• 2009

Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii has been performed in 23 PCR positive blood samples from stray cats in Korea. We used 2 separate PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of SAG2 gene, amplifying the 5' and 3' ends of the locus. The results revealed that all samples belonged to the type I clonal lineage. Although T. gondii organisms were not isolated from the samples, the results of the present study represent that stray cats with T. gondii infection should be seriously concerned in our environment. Adequate and continuous control programs of stray cats are needed to reduce the risk of transmission of T. gondii as a zoonotic infection threatening the public health.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.284-291
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• 1994

In order to establish an appropriate spray schedule to reduce the infection, 11 kinds of chemicals were tested for their properties on the inhibition of spore germination at the surface of apple fruits and the duration of the inhibitory effect after spray of each chemical was examined from late June to early September with basically 10 day intervals. Actual control efficacy of each chemical by the 8 successive spray and the patterns of waterborne spore dispersals during that periods were also examined. Combining those results with the meteorological observation data, actual control efficacy of each chemical in the given periods could be estimated. It was revealed that folpet, Brodeaux mixture, mancozeb, oxine copper and imminoctadine-triacetate could be used at any time during the possible infection periods. Captan and dithianon could also be used except the rainy season due to the short duration of inhibitory efficacy against spore germination under heavy rain. However, the usefulness of propineb, benomyl and chlorothalonil against the apple white rot could not be demonstrated in this experiment. Thiram, even though has not been used for apple white rot, can also be used before or after the rainy season to control not only white rot but also alternaria blotch.