• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.587-593
• /
• 2018

The syndromic surveillance system is designed to identify illness clusters before diagnoses are confirmed and reported to public health agencies, to provide rapid public health response, and thereby to reduce morbidity and mortality. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has implemented the emergency department-based syndromic surveillance system. To design upgraded and enhanced functions of the current syndromic surveillance system in KCDC for the early warning of adverse disease events, we surveyed many papers. This paper describes the operation status of syndromic surveillance system in other countries and the improvement of the syndromic surveillance system in KCDC.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.219-224
• /
• 2008

Due to heightened concerns regarding possible bioterrorist attacks, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention introduced syndromic surveillance systems, which have been run by emergency departments in hospitals throughout Korea since 2002. These systems are designed to identify illness clusters before diagnoses are confirmed and reported to public health agencies, to mobilize a rapid response, and thereby to reduce morbidity and mortality. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention performed drop-in syndromic surveillance successfully during the World Cup Football Games in 2002, the Universiad games in 2004, and the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in 2005. In addition, sustainable syndromic surveillance system involving the collaborative efforts of 125 sentinel hospitals has been in operation nationwide since 2002. Because active data collection can bias decisions a physician makes, there is a need to generate an automatic and passive data collection system. Therefore, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to establish computerized automatic data collection systems in the near future. These systems will be used not only fur the early detection of bioterrorism but also for more effective public health responses to disease.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.214-218
• /
• 2008

Bioterrorism events have worldwide impacts, not only in terms of security and public health policy, but also in other related sectors. Many countries, including Korea, have set up new administrative and operational structures and adapted their preparedness and response plans in order to deal with new kinds of threats. Korea has dual surveillance systems for the early detection of bioterrorism. The first is syndromic surveillance that typically monitors non-specific clinical information that may indicate possible bioterrorism-associated diseases before specific diagnoses are made. The other is infectious disease specialist network that diagnoses and responds to specific illnesses caused by intentional release of biologic agents. Infectious disease physicians, clinical microbiologists, and infection control professionals play critical and complementary roles in these networks. Infectious disease specialists should develop practical and realistic response plans for their institutions in partnership with local and state health departments, in preparation for a real or suspected bioterrorism attack.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.73-89
• /
• 2005

The disaster preparedness system in Korea has been developed in spite of many obstacles, but there are still many problems for response to newly emerging terrorisms due to the existing problems of disaster response system. The newly emerging terrorism in 21th century like biochemical terrorism has made us focus on terrorism preparedness, but health and medical aspect of terrorism has been overlooked. The health disaster system is more necessary for 21th terrorism response as well as the disaster engineering, economic and administrative aspects. The disaster preparedness system for bioterrorism has been developed by Ministry of Health with syndromic surveillance system and no case has been found in Korea yet and the resources of personnel and equipment as decontamination system in medical facilities are lacking in case of chemical terrorism. So through the multiple access method reflecting the risk factors in real terrorism field and human based health disaster concept, the disaster preparedness and response system to make up for the weak point should be suggested.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.402-410
• /
• 2018

Background: Monitoring appropriate medication categories can provide early warning of certain disease outbreaks. This study aimed to present a methodology for selecting and monitoring medications relevant to the surveillance of acute respiratory tract infections, such as influenza. Methods: To estimate correlations between acute febrile respiratory tract infection and some medication categories, the cross-correlation coefficient (CCC) was used and established. Two databases were used: real-time prescription trend of antivirals, anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics using Drug Utilization Review Program between 2012 and 2015 and physicians' number of encounters with acute febrile respiratory tract infections such as influenza outbreaks using the national level health insurance claims data. The seasonality was also evaluated using the CCC. Results: After selecting six candidate diseases that require extensive monitoring, influenza with highly specific medical treatment according to the health insurance claims data and its medications were chosen as final candidates based on a data-driven approach. Antiviral medications and influenza were significantly correlated. Conclusion: An annual correlation was observed between influenza and antiviral medications, anti-inflammatory drugs. Suitable models should be established for syndromic surveillance of influenza.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.22 no.11
• /
• pp.77-86
• /
• 2022

The destructive impact of contagious diseases outbreaks on all life facets necessitates developing effective solutions to control these diseases outbreaks. This research proposes an end-to-end, data-driven platform which consists of multiple modules that are working in harmony to achieve a concrete goal: early detection of contagious diseases outbreaks (i.e., epidemic diseases detection). Achieving that goal enables decision makers and people in power to act promptly, resulting in robust prevention management of contagious diseases. It must be clear that the goal of this proposed platform is not to predict or forecast the spread of contagious diseases, rather, its goal is to promptly detect contagious diseases outbreaks as they happen. The front end of the proposed platform is a web-based dashboard that visualizes diseases outbreaks in real-time on a real map. These outbreaks are detected via another component of the platform which utilizes data mining techniques and algorithms on gathered datasets. Those gathered datasets are managed by yet another component. Specifically, a mobile application will be the main source of data to the platform. Being a vital component of the platform, the datasets are managed by a DBMS that is specifically tailored for this platform. Preliminary results are presented to showcase the performance of a prototype of the proposed platform.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.442-454
• /
• 2017

Biological weapon is manipulated and produced from microorganisms such as bacteria, virus, rickettsia, fungi etc. It is classified as one of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) along with chemical weapon and radiological weapon. Biological weapon has a number of operational advantages over the other WMDs including ease of development and production, low cost and possibility of covert dissemination. In this study we analyze the history of biological weapon's development and the existing biological threats. Then, we predict the social impact of biological attack based on the physical properties of biological agent and infection mechanisms. By analyzing the recognition, dispersion pattern of agents, characteristics of the diseases in the biological weapon related historical events such as Sverdlovsk anthrax accident, 2001 anthrax attack, we found out some of the facts that biological attack would not likely to be recognized rapidly, produce large number of the exposed, increase number of paients who suffed from severe respiratory illness. It would lead the public health and medical service providers to be struggled with hugh burden. Base on the facts that we found from this case study, we suggested the main capabilities of public health required to respond to bioterrorism event efficiently. Syndromic surveillance and other reporting system need to be operated effeciently so that any suspicious event should be detected promptly. the pathogen which suspected to be used should be identified through laboratory diagnostic system. It is critical for the public health agency to define potentially exposed population under close cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Lastly, massive prophylaxis should be provided rapidly to the people at need by operating human and material resources effeciently. If those capacities of public health are consistantly fortified we would be able to deal with threat of bioterrorism successfully.