• Title/Summary/Keyword: outbreaks

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Epidemic Characteristics of Food Poisoning Outbreaks Reported in Korea, 1981-1989 (우리나라에서 보고된 집단 식중독의 발생 특징에 관한 연구(1981-1989))

  • 홍종해;이용욱
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.5 no.4
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    • pp.205-212
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    • 1990
  • Data used for this analysis were 281 outbreaks of food poisoning, excluding single cases, reported during 1981-1989. Patient size of 10 persons or less occupied 38.0% of the out breaks. The most frequently isolated bacterial pathogen was Vibrio, 35.4% ; followed by Salmonella, 27.2% ; Staphylococcus , 17.7% ; Escherichia coli , 17.7%. Plant toxin occupied 64% of poisonous substances. Sixty-six percent of food poisoning reported in urban area resulted from meals consumed in food consumed at home. Raw and under-cooked seafoods were the major cousative foods in food service establishments. Pork which frequently serviced at home ceremonies wes the major causative food in rural area. Mushroom poisoning generally occurred during regular meals at home.

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Molecular epidemiology of norovirus in South Korea

  • Lee, Sung-Geun;Cho, Han-Gil;Paik, Soon-Young
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.48 no.2
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    • pp.61-67
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    • 2015
  • Norovirus is a major cause of viral gastroenteritis and a common cause of foodborne and waterborne outbreaks. Norovirus outbreaks are responsible for economic losses, most notably to the public health and food industry field. Norovirus has characteristics such as low infectious dose, prolonged shedding period, strong stability, great diversity, and frequent genome mutations. Besides these characteristics, they are known for rapid and extensive spread in closed settings such as hospitals, hotels, and schools. Norovirus is well known as a major agent of food-poisoning in diverse settings in South Korea. For these reasons, nationwide surveillance for norovirus is active in both clinical and environmental settings in South Korea. Recent studies have reported the emergence of variants and novel recombinants of norovirus. In this review, we summarized studies on the molecular epidemiology and nationwide surveillance of norovirus in South Korea. This review will provide information for vaccine development and prediction of new emerging variants of norovirus in South Korea.

Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis for Subtyping of Listeria monocytogenes

  • Jang, Sung-Sik;Fleet, Graham H.;Cox, Julian M.
    • Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.48 no.2
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    • pp.58-64
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    • 2005
  • Listeria monocytogenes is a high-risk foodborne pathogen responsible for foodborne listeriosis outbreaks, and is particularly dangerous to immuno-compromised people with mortality rate of about 30%. This review summarizes subtyping of L. monocytogenes using Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis, widely used to trace origin of foodborne outbreaks and to determine relationship between isolates.

Enterobacter sakazakii : New emerging pathogen Review on E. sakazakii and development of selective medium

  • O, Se-Uk
    • Bulletin of Food Technology
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.45-61
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    • 2005
  • The first cases of neonatal meningitis believed to have been caused by Enterobacter sakazakii were reported in 1961. Prompted by several subsequent outbreaks of E. sakazakii infections in neonates and an increasing number of neonates in intensive care units being fed rehydrated powdered infant formula, considered to be a source of the pathogen, public health authorities and researchers are exploring ways to eliminate the bacterium or control its growth in dry infant formula, processing environments and formula preparation areas in hospitals. Reviewed here are advances in taxonomy and classification of E. sakazakii, methods of detecting, isolating and typing the bacterium, antibiotic resistance, clinical etilogy and pathogenicity. Outbreaks of E. sakazakii infections in neonates and adults are summarized. Reports on the presence of E. sakazakii in clinical settings, the environment and foods and food processing facilities are reviewed.

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Recent outbreaks of rabies in Gangwon-do (강원도내 광견병 발생 및 진단)

  • 신은경;신명균;한태옥
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.31-39
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    • 2004
  • This study was performed to investigate the rabies surveillance in Gangwon-do from 1997 to 2001. Of 185 laboratory submissions for rabies diagnosis, 65(35.1%) cases were determined to be infected with the rabies virus. Annual incidence of animal rabies was 10 cases in 1997, 20 cases in 1998, 16 cases in 1999, 3 cases in 2000, and 16 cases in 2001, respectively. The total number of the reported cases were increased 382% compared with that of the previous period from 1993 to 1996(7 cases). The relative contributions of infected animals in this period were as follows: cattles(24 cases), dogs(26 cases), and raccoons(15 cases). Rabies outbreak in raccoon were steadily expanded. Epidemiologic surveillance showed the rabies outbreaks spreaded to the southern area in Gangwon-do. All rabies cases were showed positive results to rabies tests such as clinical signs, histopathological findings, indirect flourescent antibody test, and mouse inoculation test. Further studies such as genetic and phylogenetic analysis of the isolates should be performed in order to figure out accurate rabies outbreak.

Enterotoxin Production and DNA Fingerprinting of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Diverse Samples by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis

  • Suh, Dong-Kyun
    • Biomedical Science Letters
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.295-299
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    • 2005
  • Staphylococcus aureus is an important animal and human pathogen implicated in a variety of disease including food-poisoning caused by staphyloccal enterotoxins (SEs). In order to investigate the difference in genomic types and to monitor the transmission of S. aureus isolates, a total of 25 S. aureus isolates from different sources were determined for their genotypic characteristics by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in addition to their ability to enterotoxin production and antibiotic resistance patterns in this study. All the isolates were susceptible to amikacin, and the resistance pattern to ampicillin and penicillin were most common among 14 different patterns. Eleven of 24 isolates produced one of three SEs, SEA, SEC or SED. Sixteen representative PFGE patterns were obtained by Smal restriction fragments of S. aureus isolates. Analysis of dendrogram based on PFGE band patterns suggested that food-poisoning outbreaks be caused by the diverse sources of food, of which their raw materials were infected with S. aureus. Also, it could be concluded that PFGE was a powerful tool for epidemiological tracing of infection source for food-initiated outbreaks.

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Application of HACCP System in the Pork Industry in Korea - Review -

  • Chung, M.S.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.253-260
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    • 1999
  • Occurrences of foodborne disease outbreaks are increasing in Korea. Among the outbreaks, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus are the most important organisms and meat and meat product the major sources of infection. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system is a process control system designed to identify and prevent microbial and other hazards in food production. It is considered to be the best process management system by the National Advisory Committee for Microbiological Criteria for Foods, the National Academy of Science, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare established a legal basis for the implementation of the HACCP system in Article 32-2 (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) of the Food Sanitation Act in December 1995. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has granted research funds for the development of this model system for application to traditional food products and processed fishery products as well as to raw meats. Implementation of the HACCP system is an important step and the Korean food industry and the Government are focused on ensuring food safety in Korea.

Reemergence of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus on Jeju Island

  • Lee, Sunhee;Ko, Deok-Ho;Kwak, Seong-Kyu;Lim, Chung-Hun;Moon, Sung-Up;Lee, Du Sik;Lee, Changhee
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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    • v.54 no.3
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    • pp.185-188
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    • 2014
  • Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) strains responsible for recent outbreaks in the United States have been occurring in Mainland Korea since late 2013. Over the past 10 years, PEDV outbreaks have not been reported on Jeju Island. However, in late March of 2014, PEDV re-emerged on Jeju Island and was found to be genetically identical to PEDV strains currently circulating in Mainland Korea. The present study was conducted to provide a better understanding of the epidemiology of PEDV and more effective preventive measures against PED.

Patterns in the Outbreaks of Senile Diseases of Industrial Workers in Kwang-ju and Ghon-nam Area (일부 산업체 근로자의 성인병 발생양상)

  • 정희곤
    • The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.99-103
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    • 1992
  • Patterns in the outbreaks of senile diseases were investigated on 1, 264 workers by special examination among the 43, 210 industrial workers by the screening test performed in Kwang-ju and Chon-nam Branch of Korean Industrial Health Association from January 4 to December 31 in 1991. The results are summarized as follows : 1) Prevalence rate of senile diseases of industrial workers was 2.9%. And prevalence rate according to the kinds of senile diseases was observed in the order of hepatitis (0.9%), hypertension(0.7%), diabetes mellitus(0.5%), anemia(0.4%). 2) Prevalence rate of complicated senile diseases of industrial workers was 0.5%. And prevalence rate according to kinds of complicated senile diseases was observed in the order of others hypertension and arteriosclerosis (0.1%), HBV and others chronic hepatitis(0.1%), essential hypertension and arteriosclerosis(0.03%), iron deficiency anemia and leukopenia(0.03%).

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