A surveillance of chigger mites was performed to monitor the incidence of scrub typhus vectors at four environmental collection points in two locations (Sunchang and Haenam) in the Honam region of Korea from August to December 2023. During the surveillance period, 4,174 chigger mites were collected and the predominant species were Leptotrombidium scutellare (94.3%). The density of chigger mites had the peaked at 44 week (10.26~11.1), while the density of patients peaked at 45 week (11.2~11.8) respectively. A positive correlation (r=0.69) observed between scrub typhus patients and vectors. This result suggests that this vector surveillance method will be useful for alarm system of tsutsugamushi disease. However, the relationship between scrub typhus cases and chigger mite density will be studied through long-term periodic surveillance.

It has been more than three years since the emergence of the COVID-19 at the end of 2019. The COVID-19 epidemic has had a certain impact on human’s normal production and life, and it is also constantly changing people’s social cognition, which are reflected in the vocabulary. There are many new words invented and the words with a sudden increase in frequency appeared. This paper selects the important Chinese words related to the COVID-19 epidemic from 2019 to 2022 as the research objects, and divides these words into three categories: COVID-19 cognition, government measures and social life. By sorting out the meanings and usages of the words, this paper analyzes and explores the development trend of Chinese social cognition reflected by these words according to the timeline. The research found that these words reflect the gradual concretization of disease names caused by the COVID-19, the proliferation of the names of mutated virus, the sudden high frequency of related words, the strong generalization and creativity of words in specific fields, lots of related words come out in the era of intelligence and so on, as well as the spiritual thoughts and cultural cognition of Chinese people contained in the vocabulary.

COVID-19로 인해 큰 혼란이 야기되었는데, 중국은 데이터를 이용하여 방역을 하였고 중국내 감염병 발생이 어느 정도 억제되었다. 하지만 데이터화 대응 상황은 양날의 검처럼 중대한 공중위생사건이 발생하여 대응 상황을 완화하는 동시에, 개인정보의 안전에 대한 위험도 내포하고 있다. 최근 2년동안 COVID-19의 방역과정에서 생기는 개인정보 보호 문제에 대응하기 위하여, 중국은 <개인정보보호법>을 제정하여 공포하였다. 중국에서는 과거부터 개인정보 보호입법에 관한 논의가 수차례 있었으나 입법에 이르지 못하다가 최근 COVID-19의 방역과정에서 생기는 개인정보 보호의 문제에 대한 대응 필요성이 대두된 가운데 중국은 20 21년 8월 20일 개인정보보호법을 제정하여 공포되었으며 동법은 같은 해 11월 1일부터 시행되고 있다. 이 연구는 중국에서의 데이터화 대응 상황 중 발생하는 개인정보 보호의 문제점을 검토한다.

로마제국 2~3세기에 발생한 대규모 전염병을 겪는 초대교회와 한국전쟁이라는 위기를 겪은 한국교회가 어떻게 복음을 전파하면서 전도의 방향과 목적을 정립해갔는지 살펴본다. 각각 사회적 질서의 아노미 현상이 발생하는 국가적 재난 속에서, 그들은 불신자들에게 어떤 영향을 주었으며, 이것이 기독교에 대한 인식과 전파 그리고 교회의 성장에 어떻게 영향을 주었는지 전도의 차원에서 조명한다. 오늘날 코로나 팬데믹으로 인한 한국사회의 위기 속에서 한국교회가 마주하는 어려움을 역사의 거울에 비추어 봄으로써, 전도의 기회를 모색한다. 코로나 팬데믹을 위기가 아닌, 복음전파의 기회로 인식해야 한다. 교회 내부의 결속과 회복만을 강조하기보다는 그리스도의 사랑과 희생을 실천하여 교회가 사회에서도 유익함을 나타내야 한다. 그러기 위해서는 예전 중심의 전도가 아닌 삶 중심의 전도를 모색해야 한다. 더 나아가 변화된 코로나 이후의 환경에서 전도의 새로운 영역과 방법에 대하여 도전해야 한다. 폐쇄적인 종교모임이 아닌, 개방적인 네트워크 중심의 신앙공동체로 성장하여 복음을 모르는 자들을 만나고 그들의 삶의 형편에서 복음을 전해야 한다.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a porcine coronavirus that causes enteric diseases characterized by watery diarrhea and dehydration in suckling piglets. Concentrated and highly purified viruses are required for the preparation of vaccines, diagnostics, and virus research. Currently, most protocols for virus purification require ultracentrifugation, which can be an instrumental barrier to routine operations in a laboratory. In this study, the efficacy of low-speed centrifugation for virus concentration was examined. The SM98 strain of PEDV was propagated in Vero cells and pelleted by centrifugation for 3 h at high speed (100,000 × g) or for 18 h at low speed (10,000 × g). The efficacy of virus concentration was analyzed by virus titration and western blotting. The amounts of infectious viruses and viral proteins in the pelleted samples obtained by low-speed centrifugation were comparable to those obtained by high-speed centrifugation. Interestingly, the pelleted sample impurity level was lower in low-speed than in high-speed centrifugation. In summary, we describe an efficient, easy-to-perform protocol for the preparation of purified and concentrated PEDV.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infects all-age pigs and causes enteric diseases. Genetic diversities in isolates been reported from each country, and those diversities highlighted in pathogenicity and vaccine. In this manuscript, we are reporting of new PEDV isolation in Korea, and with genetic characteristics. Our new isolate belongs to G2b and put the name as CNUP6-2018.

The goal of the current study was to estimate the contribution of poultry farm vehicle movement frequency to the 2014 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemic using both global and local regression models. On one hand, the global model did not consider the hypothesis that a relationship between predictors and the outcome variable might vary across the country (spatially homogeneous), while on the other hand, the local model considered that there was spatial heterogeneity within the country. The HPAI outbreak status in each province was used as a dependent variable and the number of poultry farm vehicle movements within each province (within variable), the number of poultry farm vehicle movement from one province to another province (outbound variable), the number of poultry farm vehicle movements from other provinces to one province (inbound variable), and the number of poultry farms in each province were included in the model as independent variables. The results of a global model were as follows: estimated coefficient of the log-transformed within variable was 0.73, that of the log-transformed outbound variable was 2.04, that of the log-transformed inbound variable was 0.74, and that of the number of poultry farms was 1.08. Only the number of poultry farms was a statistically significant variable (p-value < 0.001). The AIC score of the global model was 1397.5. The results of the local model were as follows: estimated median coefficient of the log-transformed within variable was 0.75, that of the log-transformed outbound variable was 2.54, that of the log-transformed inbound variable was 0.60, and that of the number of poultry farms was 0.07. The local model’s AIC score was 1382.2. The results of our study indicate that a local model would provide a better understanding of the relationship between HPAI outbreak status and poultry farm vehicle movements than that provided by a global model.

The goal of the current study was to explore the relationship between vehicle movement frequency and a disease outbreak by using the example of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in 2014 in the Republic of Korea. To explore the relationship between the HPAI outbreak status of Korean provinces and vehicle movements, both an ordinary least square model (OLS) and a maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) were built. The HPAI outbreak status of each province was used as a dependent variable. The number of poultry farm vehicle movements within the province (within variable), the number of poultry farm vehicle movements from one province to another province (outbound variable), the number of poultry farm vehicle movements from other provinces to one province (inbound variable), and the number of poultry farms in each province were included in the models as independent variables. Results of the OLS model were as follows: the estimated coefficient of the log-transformed within variable was -0.30, that of the log-transformed outbound variable was 0.71, that of the log-transformed inbound variable was -0.30, and that of the number of poultry farms was 0.07; however, only the number of poultry farms per province was statistically significant. Results of the MaxEnt model were as follows: the median relative contribution of the log-transformed outbound variable was 52.0 (range: 12.2–83.9), that of the log-transformed inbound variable was 34.4 (range: 8.8–83.4), that of the log-transformed within variable was 3.7 (range: 1.8–7.3), and that of the number of poultry farms per province was 0.7 (range: 0.0–11.7). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.683. The results of current study should be helpful for planning a national HPAI surveillance program to locate surveillance resources with the consideration of risk level of provinces.

PURPOSES: The purpose of this study is to develop an epidemic model considering interregional trips. METHODS : We developed the SIR-T model, which is an epidemic model of infectious diseases based on a metapopulation model considering the interactions between population groups. This model can consider the characteristics of the modes. A simulation was performed using this model to analyze the progress of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Korea, in 2015. RESULTS: The simulation results show that the spread of infectious diseases through passenger cars was the fastest and had the largest spread range. In the case of public transportation systems such as intercity buses, public railways, and high-speed railways, infectious diseases spread primarily at major terminal facilities and traffic facilities. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemic model of infectious diseases considering the interregional trips proposed in this study can be used as the base data for prevention strategy planning. However, a significant limitation is the lack of discussion on simulation parameter settings in this study, and further discussions are required in future studies.

The cost-effectiveness of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control strategies was evaluated using a simulation model fitted to the 2010/11 FMD epidemic in the city of Andong, Republic of Korea. Seven FMD-control strategies were evaluated with respect to the direct cost of a FMD-control strategy, such as slaughtering, movement restriction, and vaccination. All the strategies included pre-emptive slaughtering, movement restriction, and vaccination, but the levels of each control option were different. The simulated median cost of the baseline FMD-control strategy (three kilometers of pre-emptive slaughtering area, 100 days of movement restriction and vaccination of all FMD-susceptible animals in the study area) was estimated to be USD 99.7 million. When a five kilometer vaccination area was applied (with the other control measures being the same as the baseline strategy), the simulated median cost was reduced to USD 81.1 million from USD 99.7. The simulated median costs were USD 107.6 million for a five kilometer radius slaughtering area and USD 168.8 million for 60 days of movement restriction. The FMD-control strategy cost decreased with increasing number of farms depopulated per day. The probability of passive surveillance being effective or the probability of the successful implementation of movement restrictions were increased. Cost-effectiveness analysis is a suitable tool for evaluating the financial consequences of FMD-control strategies by comparing the cost of control strategies for a specific area.

A simulation model of the 2010/11 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic in the city of Andong, Republic of Korea was constructed to evaluate the epidemiologic effectiveness of FMD-control strategies. Seven FMD-control strategies were evaluated with respect to a number of epidemiologic indicators relating to the outbreak, including the number of infected animals, number of infected farms, and epidemic duration. The FMD-control strategies in the model consisted of pre-emptive slaughtering, movement restriction, and vaccination; however, levels of each control option differed. The constructed model was not perfectly representative of the 2010/11 FMD epidemic, although it was considered to mimic the actual FMD epidemic in its prediction of two outcomes: the median number of simulated FMD-detected farms was 294 (range 207–515), which was close to the number of farms detected (299) during the actual FMD epidemic (x2=87.239, df=98, p = 0.774); and the simulated epidemic curve was visually similar to the actual epidemic curve of the 2010/11 FMD epidemic. The effectiveness evaluation of simulated FMD-control strategies emphasized the amount the FMD outbreak size could have increased if the radius of the pre-emptive slaughtering area or the duration of movement restriction were decreased.

Viral particles of Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) consist of a four structural proteins. Among them Spikeprotein mediated responsible for receptor binding and membrane fusion during viral infection and therefore the main targetof neutralizing antibodies. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are consisted of one or more viral structural proteins, and theirmorphologies closely resemble those of the native virus. VLPs have no virulence and can elicit robust immune responsesas compared with inactivated or live-attenuated virus vaccines. Thus, in this study, we tried two methods for VLP constructionin Bombyx mori, one is traditional method and the other is chimeric VLP method using the influenza matrix protein.Both methods could produce successfully PEDV VLPs.

The coronavirus porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infects the cells lining the small intestine of a pig and, causes porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). Owing to its highly infectious nature, PEDV has a substantial economic burden, which results in significant morbidity and mortality in piglets. In this study, the virucidal efficacy of a powder disinfectant containing a phosphate compound against PEDV was investigated. Virucidal efficacy was assessed as the infectivity of PEDV toward Vero cells after exposure of the virus to the disinfectant. PEDV was exposed to the disinfectant in the presence of either hard water (HW) or an organic matter suspension (OM). In the HW condition, PEDV was inactivated by 4-fold dilution of the disinfectant. In the presence of OM, the disinfectant showed virucidal activity with a 2-fold dilution. As the disinfectant possessed virucidal activity against PEDV, it should be an effective reagent for limiting the spread of animal viral diseases.

A surveillance of chigger mites was performed to monitor the incidence of scrub typhus vectors at 5 environmental collection points of 3 locations (Muju, Namwon and Gimge) from April 2016 in Jeollabuk-Do, Korea. During the surveillance period, 3,292 chigger mites were collected and the predominant species were Leptotrombidium pallidum (42.9%). The high environmental collecting rates were recorded at reservoir bank (31.6%) and grassfield (29.7%). We detected Orientia tsutsugamushi from the samples collected in Jeollabuk-Do using nested polymerase chain reaction. The specific DNA of O. tsutsugamushi were detected in 11 pools among total 119 pools and its minimum positive rate was 0.35%. In order to clarify the relationship between chigger mites and scrub typhus cases, further survey will be needed.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes acute diarrhea and dehydration in pigs with high mortality. PEDV is belong to Coronavirus, enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus. PEDV particles were composed of four structure proteins such as a glycosylated peplomer (spike, S) protein, envelope (E), glycosylated membrane (M) protein, and unglycosylated RNA-binding nucleocapsid (N) protein. Many of previous studies talk about this four structure proteins have a great potential to diagnosis and prevent PEDV. In this study we investigated expression of these structure proteins using the bacterial and baculovirus expression system. In bacterial expression system, our results showed that structure proteins fused polyhedrin and intein gene were expressed higher than non-fusion structure proteins. The expressed fusion proteins were used to immune mice for generating a polyclonal antibodies. In baculovirus expression system, co-infection of insect cells with these four recombinant baculoviruses led to self-assembly of virus-like particles as demonstrated by Transmission electron microscopy. They were confirmed by western blot analysis using pre-made polyclonal antibodies. Finding in this study may provide important information for vaccine and diagnostic development.

A surveillance of chigger mites was performed to monitor the incidence of scrub typhus vectors at 4 environmental collection points of 6 locations from September to November 2014 in Korea. During the survey period, 420 chigger mites were collected and the dominant species was Leptotrombidium scutellare (42.6%). The first appearance of chigger mite was at 37th week (9.3.-9.10.) and the collected numbers of chigger mites was the highest at 43rd week (10.17.-10.23.). In Goryeong-gun, 299 chigger mites were collected, whereas 5 chigger mites were collected In Yesan-gun. The high environmental collecting rates were recorded at rice field (56%) and waterway (20%). The annually collected numbers (2012-2014) of chigger mites were compared with the average temperatures in August. This result suggests that the average temperature in August might be related with the annual incidence of scrub typhus vectors in Korea. However, the relationship between climate factors and the density of chigger mites needs to be studied by long-term periodical surveillance.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and a considerable economic loss in the swine industry. In this study, the virucidal efficacy of a disinfectant composed of citric acid, benzalkonium chloride and phosphoric acid against PEDV was investigated. Virucidal efficacy was assessed as the infectivity of PEDV toward Vero cells after exposure of the virus to the disinfectant. PEDV was exposed to the disinfectant in the presence of either hard water (HW) or an organic matter suspension (OM). In HW condition, PEDV was inactivated by 600-fold dilutions of the disinfectant. In the presence of OM, the disinfectant showed virucidal activity after a 200-fold dilution. As the disinfectant possesses virucidal activity against PEDV, it should be an effective reagent to use to limit the spread of animal viral diseases.

Food allergy refers to an immunologically mediated adverse reaction to food, mainly to proteinaceous constituents. Health implications vary between those individuals who experience mild physical discomforts to those with fast-acting, life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. The prevalence of food allergy is higher in children than in adults, estimated around 4-8% and 1-2% respectively in developed countries. Food allergy has no effective cure at the present time and total avoidance of causative foods is the most reliable prophylactic method currently recommended by the medical community. To help food allergic patients to make informed choices of their foods, mandatory labeling of selected food allergens has been introduced in several countries. All food allergen labelling provisions specify a set of allergens common to the regulated countries. Policy divergence, however, exists between countries by inclusion of additional allergens unique to specific countries and enforcement of specific labelling requirements. Such variations in food allergen labelling regulations make it difficult to manage allergen labeling in imported pre-packaged food products. This paper addresses two current issues in food allergen regulation: 1) an urgent need to determine true prevalence of food allergy in the Asia-Pacific region. This will enable refinement to the food allergen regulation to be more country-specific rather than simply adopting CODEX recommendations. 2) There is an urgent need for harmonization of food allergen regulation in order to prevent food allergen regulation becoming a trade barrier.

During 2008 2010, 943 swine sera were collected from 45 farms located nationwide. Antibodies against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) were tested via serum neutralization antibody test (SNT) using PEDV-SN, which was adapted and propagated on the Vero cell monolayer with trypsin-free culture media supplemented with more than 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). All 45 farms were shown to have at least one or more seropositive pig. Of the 943 swine sera that were tested, 931 sera were neutralizing antibody positive against PEDV. These high seroprevalence rates seemed to be due to vaccination or natural infection of PEDV. In a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) using a swine serum showing SN titer of 1:32, a greater than 50% plaque reduction was observed in up to 160 times serum dilution.

Density of malaria vector mosquitoes, Anopheles mosquitoes, and infection of Plamodium vivax from the vector mosquitoes were monitored at 9 surveillance points in Incheonsi, 12 in Gyeonggi province and 7 in Gangwon province in the Republic of Korea (ROK) from April to October of 2010. The seasonal numbers of Anopheles mosquitoes collected weekly showed a high degree of variability. A total of 4,435 mosquitoes were captured using black light traps. Members of the Anopheles mosquito group were the most abundant species and accounted for 71.8% of the mosquitoes collected. The majority of this species were collected from Incheonsi (86.2%), particularly from Ganghwagun (84.8%). During June, populations of this species steadily increased and peak at second week of July. Thereafter, populations of this species decreased by the second week of August and increased by the third week of August, again. Anopheles mosquitoes steadily decreased from the fourth week of August. First Anopheles mosquitoes were reported in Wolgotri (15th weeks/year), Ganghwagun, Incheonsi, followed by Tanhyundong (16th weeks/year), Pajusi, Gyeonggi Province and Daemari (17th weeks/year), Cheolwongun, Gangwon Province. In Ganghwagun in which the most abundant malaria patients (102 patients) were reported, Anopheles mosquitoes demonstrated the highest species portion (over 70%) among collected mosquito species from July to September. Infection rate of P. vivax from the Anopheles mosquitoes also was the highest in Ganghwagun. In Gangwon and Gyeonggi provinces, collection rate of Anopheles mosquitoes and infection rate of P. vivax were relatively lower than those of Ganghwagun. Reported malaria patient cases in Gangwon and Gyeonggi provinces also were relatively lower than those of Ganghwagun. However, detailed results showed that there were some sites in which any correlation between malaria patients and vector mosquitoes were not. This may be resulted from size of surveillance area. Smaller size of surveillance area was, higher accuracy of analysis on correlation between vector mosquitoes and patients was. Further studies on relationship between malaria vector and patients may need for more accurate analysis, such as increase of collection site and so on.