• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.330-333
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• 2022

Korea's quarantine response to the novel coronavirus (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) pandemic is based on the sacrifice of health professionals, especially public health doctors (PHDs) who were called out first and put in the first place in the country. PHDs performed major quarantine tasks, such as collecting samples from screening clinics and epidemiological investigations, in various parts of the country, including the Daegu area, where the first large-scale COVID-19 confirmed cases in Korea and explosively increased. Because of their position as fixed-term civil servants, however, PHDs' professionalism as doctors was ignored, and they were not properly compensated for their work. They were also exposed to problems such as a high risk of infection, mental suffering, and various human rights violations. We must prepare concrete measures to improve the fundamental treatment of PHDs and protect their human rights in order to prepare for a possible infectious disease pandemic in the future.

• Annual Conference of KIPS
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.413-415
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• 2020

코로나 바이러스 감염증-19가 처음 발생한 이래로 확산세가 전혀 줄지 않고 계속 늘어나는 지금, 확진자는 물론이거니와 자가격리자에 대한 관리 또한 매우 중요하다. 국가 간 이동이나 코로나 바이러스 확진자와 접촉한 일이 있는 사람의 경우 2주간의 자가격리를 해야 되니만큼 그 숫자가 매우 많으며 그에 대한 관리 또한 중요하다. 이에 따라 본 논문에서는 블록체인을 이용하여 자가격리자에 대한 체계적이고 신뢰성 있는 관리 시스템을 제안한다. 프라이빗 블록체인 합의 알고리즘인 PBFT를 이용하여 방역당국과 같은 중앙에서 그것을 실시간으로 확인하여 자가격리 이탈자가 있을 경우 바로 알 수 있는 효과를 기대한다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.682-690
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• 2024

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare immune-mediated complication of a viral infection commonly involving the bilateral thalamus and has been reported mainly in children. Here, we describe the MRI findings of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated ANE in two pediatric patients, including a 7-year-old girl with fever and mental change, and a 6-year-old girl with fever and generalized seizures. Brain MRI revealed symmetrical T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery high-signal intensity lesions in the bilateral thalamus with central hemorrhage. In one patient, the thalamic lesions showed a tri-laminar pattern on the apparent diffusion coefficient map. This report emphasizes the importance of creating awareness regarding these findings in patients with COVID-19, particularly in children with severe neurological symptoms. Furthermore, it provides a literature review of several documented cases of COVID-19 presenting with bilateral thalamic hemorrhagic necrosis, suggesting a diagnosis of ANE.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.221-225
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• 2023

In this paper, we proposed an efficient method for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 by voice. A novel Strided Convolution Separable Transformer (SC-SepTr) is proposed by modifying the conventional Separable Transformer (SepTr) for audio signal recognition. The proposed method reduces the memory and computational requirements to enable rapid diagnosis of COVID-19. As a result of experiments on Coswara, it was shown that the proposed method perform rapid diagnosis with guaranteeing Area Under the Curve (AUC) performance even for a relatively small amount of learning data.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2022

Many industries are being severely damaged by COVID-19, a respiratory infection that has recently been prevalent around the world. In particular, for workers in the construction industry, it is impossible to work from home, and if an outbreak on a construction site is confirmed, it can lead to great damage. Accordingly, the government has drafted 「Guidelines for Response to Construction Sites for Prevention and Spread of COVID-19」. In addition, domestic and foreign research about COVID-19 in the field of construction sites is being actively conducted. However, Korea has lacked studies on the effectiveness of the countermeasures in place at construction sites, or that reflect the opinions of construction site workers. Therefore, this study conducted a survey of construction site workers by dividing the construction of the COVID-19 quarantine management system and response plan into on-site management and social management. Through the AHP/IPA analysis, it was found that among social management, 'infectious disease management system and cooperation system with related institutions' and 'reduction of working hours' are areas with high importance but low satisfaction. After that, the causes of the two items were analyzed and related countermeasures were suggested. The results of this study will be able to contribute to the improvement of the quarantine management system and response plan at construction sites, and to minimize the damage to the construction industry related to COVID-19.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2022

Objectives : In this study, we evaluate psychological stress, symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood and resilience which medical residents and interns perceived during COVID-19 event, then investigate the associations between stress and the symptoms and mediating effect of resilience on the associations. Methods : In this study, we made a self-reporting form to evaluate psychological stress with perceived stress scale (PSS), symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood with Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD), and resilience with Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Medical residents and interns, who worked in a hospital during COVID-19 event, filled the self-reporting forms from july, 2020 to august, 2020. We conducted a Pearson correlation coefficient and a multiple regression to confirm association between psychological stress and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood, then mediating effect of resilience. Results : The higher stress perceived, the more symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood were reported by medical residents and interns. The higher resilience is associated with lower stress and less symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood, which resilience is proven to mediate partially the association between stress and symptoms of depressed mood. Conclusions : This study shows that resilience has a partial mediating effects on the association between stress and psychological pathology especially depressed mood, given that medical residents and interns were under psychological distress during COVID-19 event. This suggests that resilience is the key for medical trainees to overcome the future crisis like COVID-19 event.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2024

Purpose: Since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, various variants of concern have emerged. We divided the representative COVID-19 mutation period into four waves and aimed to analyze the clinical and laboratory features of children with COVID-19 from pre-mutation wave to the middle of omicron wave. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of hospitalized patients aged ≤19 years with laboratory confirmed COVID-19. Clinical and laboratory findings during pre-mutation (February 1st 2020 to September 30th 2020), alpha/beta (October 1st 2020 to May 31st 2021), delta (June 1st 2021 to October 31st 2021), and omicron (November 1st 2021 to May 31st 2022) waves were compared. Results: Among total 827 patients, 163 (19.7%) were asymptomatic, and the frequency of fever and cough was 320 (38.7%) and 399 (48.2%), respectively. The proportion of fever ≥38.5℃ was observed to be high during the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years. Lymphopenia was observed highly in the omicron wave in the age group under 12 years, and in the delta wave in the age group older than 12 years. Neutropenia was highly observed in the delta wave in the 0-4 years age group. Conclusions: There were distinct characteristics during all epidemic waves of COVID-19. Children with COVID-19 had more frequent persistent fever during delta wave and children during the omicron wave had a higher peak fever.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.257-265
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• 2021

The COVID-19 virus is a β-genus virus that causes infection by mediating the angiotensin convertible enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, which is distributed in large numbers in the human respiratory tract. The disease requires effective post-management of antibody production by complete healers and vaccinators because there is no perfect remedy for the virus infection. This study aimed to develop recombinant proteins specifically responsive to neutralizing antibodies in clinical specimens and use them to develop a rapid diagnostic kit to diagnose neutralizing antibodies quickly and conveniently against the COVID-19 virus and confirm the possibility of commercialization through a performance evaluation. Rapid diagnostic kits using COVID-19 S1 RBD recombinant proteins can be applied to rapid diagnostic kits, with positive percentage agreement (PPA) and negative percentage agreement (NPA) of 100% and 98.3%, respectively, compared to the U.S. FDA-approved ELISA kits. If the performance of the rapid diagnostic kit is improved and neutralizing antibodies can be analyzed quantitatively using quantitative analysis equipment, it can be used as important data to predict immunity to the COVID-19 virus and determine additional vaccinations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.54-57
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• 2022

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by severe acute syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurs the unprecedented pandemic during recent two years and the WHO declared a global pandemic of COVID-19 in March 2020. The most common sampling sites in COVID-19 test are the oropharynx and nasopharynx. We recently encountered a total laryngectomee who had a positivity COVID-19 diagnostic test from the tracheostoma, on the other hand, false negativity from the nasal cavity. The meaning of this case is that accurate screening test could be achieved by performing a test through the tracheostoma as well as nasal cavity or oropharynx. We also would like to discuss the accurate testing methods of patients whose airflow has distorted due to surgery, the management method of these patients, and the need of further research in the COVID-19 pandemic period with relevant literature reviews.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.561-572
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to understand nurses' lived experiences of caring for patients with COVID-19. Methods: The phenomenological research method was used. The study participants were 16 Korean nurses who had experiences in caring for patients with COVID-19 in clinical settings. Data was collected using one-on-one in-depth interviews, from June 30 to September 30, 2020. During the interview, the quarantine rules were observed. Results: The study derived four themes clusters and thirty-eight sub themes. Four theme clusters were identified, i.e., 'a repetitive sense of crisis', 'enduring a drastic change,' 'sacrifice of personal life,' and 'pride in nursing'. The nurses' experiences of caring for patients with COVID-19 were an uneasy, unfamiliar, and threatening experiences for an individual, but it is an opportunity for a nursing organization to renew. Accordingly, it was found that nurses faithfully fulfill their individual roles with a vocation and responsibility. Conclusion: The study provides an in-depth understanding of the situational, psychological, and environmental aspects of challenges facing nurses in the pandemic situation. Based on the findings, institutional follow-up measures should be provided to establish support systems for better nursing care. In addition, studies are needed to track nurses' experiences in the prolonged COVID-19 situation.