• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.293-301
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• 2020

Objectives: At the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, some countries imposed entry bans against Chinese visitors. We sought to identify the effects of border shutdowns on the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: We used the synthetic control method to measure the effects of entry bans against Chinese visitors on the cumulative number of confirmed cases using World Health Organization situation reports as the data source. The synthetic control method constructs a synthetic country that did not shut down its borders, but is similar in all other aspects. Results: Six countries that shut down their borders were evaluated. For Australia, the effects of the policy began to appear 4 days after implementation, and the number of COVID-19 cases dropped by 94.4%. The border shutdown policy took around 13.2 days to show positive effects and lowered COVID-19 cases by 91.7% on average by the end of February. Conclusions: The border shutdowns in early February significantly reduced the spread of the virus. Our findings are informative for future planning of public health policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.241-243
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• 2021

With the increase in vaccinations worldwide, the world is facing the era of coexisting with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The government announced that it will change its focus of public health emergency response system, gradually toward daily recovery from November. Hence, this article reviews an overview of policy tasks to prepare for the era of coexistence with COVID-19. The three key policies that should be considered are as follow: (1) vaccination should be administered promptly to improve the immunity of the target population; (2) the government should advance the medical capability for critically ill patients and reorganize the patient delivery system; and (3) epidemiological surveillance system should be reformed in a direction to raise the social capacity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2022

Diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs are indispensable tools and control measures employed to overcome infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Diagnostic tools based on RT-PCR were developed early in the COVID-19 pandemic and were urgently required for quarantine (testing, tracing and isolation). Vaccines such as mRNA vaccines and virus-vectored vaccines were also successfully developed using new platform technologies within one year after identifying severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as the causative agent of COVID-19. Drug development has been conducted in various ways including drug repurposing, convalescent plasma therapy, and monoclonal antibody development. Among the above efforts, this review examines COVID-19 drug development along with the related and upcoming challenges.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.331-336
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• 2022

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exhibits various symptoms, ranging from asymptomatic to severe pneumonia or death. The major features of patients in severe COVID-19 are the dysregulation of cytokine secretion, pneumonia, and acute lung injury. Consequently, it leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome, disseminated intravascular coagulation, multiple organ failure, and death. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative virus of COVID-19, influences nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain, leucine-rich repeat, and pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), the sensor of inflammasomes, directly or indirectly, culminating in the assembly of NLRP3 inflammasome and activation of inflammatory caspases, which induce the inflammatory disruption in severe COVID-19. Accordingly, the target therapeutics for inflammasome has attracted attention as a treatment for COVID-19. Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) inhibits several inflammatory responses, including the NLRP3 inflammasome signaling. This review discusses the role of KRG in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 based on its anti-NLRP3 inflammasome efficacy.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.722-730
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• 2022

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogenic virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with major symptoms including hyper-inflammation and cytokine storm, which consequently impairs the respiratory system and multiple organs, or even cause death. SARS-CoV-2 activates inflammasomes and inflammasome-mediated inflammatory signaling pathways, which are key determinants of hyperinflammation and cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients. Additionally, SARS-CoV-2 inhibits inflammasome activation to evade the host's antiviral immunity. Therefore, regulating inflammasome initiation has received increasing attention as a preventive measure in COVID-19 patients. Ginseng and its major active constituents, ginsenosides and saponins, improve the immune system and exert anti-inflammatory effects by targeting inflammasome stimulation. Therefore, this review discussed the potential preventive and therapeutic roles of ginseng in COVID-19 based on its regulatory role in inflammasome initiation and the host's antiviral immunity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.156-159
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• 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 has upended the world of otolaryngology. After COVID-19 infection, patients experience various complication of symptoms due to injury of the larynx and lung/ respiratory system. Regardless of the patient's severity, patients can experience several complications including dysphonia, vocal cord paralysis/paresis and sensory neuropathy. An emerging role for otolaryngologists in the coming weeks and months is the management of laryngeal complications of COVID-19. This review is intended to describe laryngeal complications in patients recovering from COVID-19 infection.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.63-67
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• 2024

This repeated cross-sectional study with two independent sample populations compared the antibody response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccines in Albania in July-August 2021 and 2022. In 2021, it found higher anti-spike-1 seropositivity and antibody levels in fully vaccinated individuals, especially with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 and to a lesser degree with CoronaVac. By 2022, all single-dose recipients showed high antibody responses, suggesting natural infection-enhanced immunity. The study indicates a significant evolution in the antibody response to different coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines and suggests that a single vaccine dose, coupled with natural infection, might suffice to maintain adequate immunity levels in an endemic scenario.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.286-295
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• 2020

Respiratory infections are very common and highly contagious. Respiratory infectious diseases affect not only the person infected but also the family members and the society. As medical sciences advance, several diseases have been conquered; however, the impact of novel infectious diseases on the society is enormous. As the clinical presentation of respiratory infections is similar regardless of the pathogen, the causative agent is not distinguishable by symptoms alone. Moreover, it is difficult to develop a cure because of the various viral mutations. Various respiratory infectious diseases ranging from influenza, which threaten the health of mankind globally, to the coronavirus disease 2019, which resulted in a pandemic, exist. Contrary to human expectations that development in health care and improvement in hygiene will conquer infectious diseases, humankind's health and social systems are threatened by novel infectious diseases. Owing to the development of transport and trading activity, the rate of spread of new infectious diseases is increasing. As respiratory infections can threaten the members of the global community at any time, investigations on preventing the transmission of these diseases as well as development of effective antivirals and vaccines are of utmost importance and require a worldwide effort.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1109-1115
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• 2020

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading globally, and the WHO has declared this outbreak a pandemic. Vaccines are an effective way to prevent the rapid spread of COVID-19. Furthermore, the immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection needs to be understood for the development of an efficient and safe vaccine. Here, we review the current understanding of vaccine targets and the status of vaccine development for COVID-19. We also describe host immune responses to highly pathogenic human coronaviruses in terms of innate and adaptive immunities.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.127-135
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• 2020

Coronavirus is generally known to cause minor respiratory diseases in animals and humans. However, some coronavirus genus is reported to cause animal-to-human interspecies infection. Since the end of 2019, a new type of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection is spreading rapidly throughout the world, leading to the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite various clinical studies to counter COVID-19 infection, the total confirmed cases and death rates are still accumulating. To break down this new threat, we should pay attention to newly revealed information based on scientific facts. In this review, we introduced the clinical characteristics, diagnostic methods, and treatment of patients infected with COVID-19. Moreover, we highlighted the correlation between COVID-19 severity and patients with underlying diseases. Potential risks associated with COVID-19 can be differed depending on the condition of patients and can cause pulmonary complications. Therefore, lung capacity exams are expected to help predict the progression of the disease along with previously established detection methods such as molecular diagnostics and immunoassay. Although physiological research hasn't yet been emphasized to evaluate COVID-19 infection, this review is expected to be valuable to give new inspiration to deal with COVID-19 which might strike again in the future.