• Title/Summary/Keyword: Prevention of Spread of Infectious Disease

Search Result 54, Processing Time 0.026 seconds

Guidelines for dental clinic infection prevention during COVID-19 pandemic (코로나 바이러스 대유행에 따른 치과 의료 관리 가이드라인)

  • Kim, Jin
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
    • /
    • v.8 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-7
    • /
    • 2020
  • Dental settings have unique characteristics that warrant specific infection control considerations, including (1) prioritizing the most critical dental services and provide care in a way that minimizes harm to patients due to delayed care, or harm to personnel from potential exposure to persons infected with the COVID-19 disease, and (2) proactively communicate to both personnel and patients the need for them to stay at home if sick. For health care, an interim infection prevention and control recommendation (COVID-19) is recommended for patients suspected of having coronavirus or those whose status has been confirmed. SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, is thought to be spread primarily between people who are in close contact with one another (within 6 feet) through respiratory droplets that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Airborne transmission from person-to-person over long distances is unlikely. However, COVID-19 is a new disease, and there remain uncertainties about its mode of spreads and the severity of illness it causes. The virus has been shown to persist in aerosols for several hours, and on some surfaces for days under laboratory conditions. COVID-19 may also be spread by people who are asymptomatic. The practice of dentistry involves the use of rotary dental and surgical instruments, such as handpieces or ultrasonic scalers, and air-water syringes. These instruments create a visible spray that can contain particle droplets of water, saliva, blood, microorganisms, and other debris. While KF 94 masks protect the mucous membranes of the mouth and nose from droplet spatter, they do not provide complete protection against the inhalation of airborne infectious agents. If the patient is afebrile (temperature <100.4°F)* and otherwise without symptoms consistent with COVID-19, then dental care may be provided using appropriate engineering and administrative controls, work practices, and infection control considerations. It is necessary to provide supplies for respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, including alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) with 60%~95% alcohol, tissues, and no-touch receptacles for disposal, at healthcare facility entrances, waiting rooms, and patient check-ins. There is also the need to install physical barriers (e.g., glass or plastic windows) in reception areas to limit close contact between triage personnel and potentially infectious patients. Ideally, dental treatment should be provided in individual rooms whenever possible, with a spacing of at least 6 feet between the patient chairs. Further, the use of easy-to-clean floor-to-ceiling barriers will enhance the effectiveness of portable HEPA air filtration systems. Before and after all patient contact, contact with potentially infectious material, and before putting on and after removing personal protective equipment, including gloves, hand hygiene after removal is particularly important to remove any pathogens that may have been transferred to the bare hands during the removal process. ABHR with 60~95% alcohol is to be used, or hands should be washed with soap and water for at least 20 s.

Isolation Effectiveness by Progressive Space Organization in Negative Pressured Isolation Unit (음압격리병실에 있어서 단계별 공간구성의 격리효과)

  • Kwon, Soonjung;Sung, Minki
    • Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
    • /
    • v.22 no.4
    • /
    • pp.79-86
    • /
    • 2016
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of Progressive Space Organization (ante-rooms) in Negative Pressured Isolation Unit(NPIU) such as National and Regional Isolation Units in Korea in order to build basic data for the evidence based design of Airborne Infection Isolation Units which should prepare and respond effectively to the public health crisis due to the hazardous airborne infectious disease. Methods: 1) Gas(SF6) test and analysis on the 23 Korean Isolation Units under operation. 2) Assessment of the isolation level of the space components by checking the Gas concentration. 3) Analysis of the Isolation Effectiveness according to Space Organizational levels. Results: 1) The higher segregation level is, the lower Gas(SF6) concentration is. 2) Too many segregations(anterooms) of Isolation Unit are not efficient for the prevention of infectious bacillus spread. For example, 4 level of segregation has similar segregation effect to the 3 level of segregation. Implications: Many anterooms in front of the isolated patient bedroom will guarantee the safe environment against the danger of hazardous airborne nosocomial infection. On the other hand, too many segregations is inefficient, expensive, inconvenient, narrow(unflexible) and so on. This study can be used as basic data for further development of design guidelines of isolation units.

Role of Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Disease during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Outbreak in Korea, 2015 (2015년 우리나라에서 발생한 중동호흡기증후군과 대한소아감염학회의 역할)

  • Kim, Kyung-Hyo
    • Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
    • /
    • v.22 no.3
    • /
    • pp.136-142
    • /
    • 2015
  • The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (KSPID) has participated in the task force team consisting of government authorities as well as civil medical experts and facilities to block the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015. KSPID posted the "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Pop-up" in the homepage of The Korean Pediatric Society and The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. KSPID also released the "Guidelines for testing for MERS in children and adolescents" and the "Instructions for the Operation of National Safe Hospital" for children and adolescents in a timely manner. Such actions were aimed to prevent unnecessary anxieties, studies and isolation of pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms and signs caused by other common microbial etiologies as being suspected for MERS patients. This strategy relieved the doctors and parents from unnecessary fear and prevented the loss of unnecessary health care costs, and has proven to be a well-judged guideline and management protocol as evaluated after the final end of MERS outbreak. KSPID and its members should support the presence of pediatric infectious disease (PID) specialists in every medium size hospitals in Korea by developing the need for consultation fees for PID consultation in the hospital based practice and promoting the potential for cost savings related to prevention of health care associated infections and optimal prescription of antimicrobial agents. KSPID and its members need to approach and develop a communication plan to political decision makers to demonstrate and convince them of the importance of a PID specialist service.

Pulmonary Contusion Similar to COVID-19 Pneumonia

  • Lee, Seung Hwan;Hyun, Sung Youl;Jeon, Yang Bin;Lee, Jung Nam;Lee, Gil Jae
    • Journal of Trauma and Injury
    • /
    • v.33 no.2
    • /
    • pp.119-123
    • /
    • 2020
  • The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across the world and caused a pandemic. It can be transmitted by an infected person or an asymptomatic carrier and is a highly contagious disease. Prevention and early identification of COVID-19 are important to minimize the transmission of COVID-19. Chest computed tomography (CT) has a high sensitivity for detecting COVID-19, but relatively low specificity. Therefore, chest CT may be difficult to distinguish COVID-19 findings from those of other infectious (notably viral types of pneumonia) or noninfectious disease. Pulmonary contusion has also a lot of similarities on chest CT with COVID-19 pneumonia. We present trauma patients with pulmonary contusion whose CT scans showed findings similar to those of COVID-19, and we report our experience in the management of trauma patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traditional Unani Medicine in Flu-like Epidemics and COVID-19 during Pregnancy: A Literary Research

  • Sultana, Arshiya;Khanam, Marhaba;Rahman, Khaleequr;Sumbul, Sumbul
    • CELLMED
    • /
    • v.11 no.4
    • /
    • pp.20.1-20.23
    • /
    • 2021
  • Background: The pandemic COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 has spread like a forest fire. This disease may have serious consequences for pregnant women. Presently, no specific drugs or vaccines exist to battle this disease and researches are underway. Unani medicine has a unique role in prevention and management during epidemics. Here, we reviewed the overview of COVID-19 infection and pregnancy, concept and practices in Unani medicine for flu-like epidemics in general and pregnancy, and safety of Unani drugs for the prevention and treatment of mild symptomatic cases of COVID-19 during pregnancy. Methodology: Unani classical texts and pharmacopoeia were meticulously explored for concepts and practices for flu-like epidemic diseases. Further, we browsed scientific databases such as PubMed, Scopus and others for an overview, epidemics and Unani medicine, effectiveness and safety of Unani drugs in COVID-19 and pregnancy. Results: Unani medicine includes prevention and management of flu-like epidemic include quarantine and isolation, aromatic herbal drugs fumigation and spraying for environmental disinfection, ilaj bid tadbir for health promotion and use of health-protecting drugs and symptom-specific drugs in general and related to pregnancy. Lahsun, asalussus, behidana, banafsha, zanjabeel, unnab, etc are in use since antiquity for the prevention and treatment of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic pregnant women during infectious and epidemic diseases. Conclusion: Currently, the aforementioned plants are proven for antiviral, antioxidant, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities, probably useful in the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, scientific studies have provided new insight into the mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of Unani medicines that are safe in pregnancy.

Forecasting of the COVID-19 pandemic situation of Korea

  • Goo, Taewan;Apio, Catherine;Heo, Gyujin;Lee, Doeun;Lee, Jong Hyeok;Lim, Jisun;Han, Kyulhee;Park, Taesung
    • Genomics & Informatics
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.11.1-11.8
    • /
    • 2021
  • For the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), predictive modeling, in the literature, uses broadly susceptible exposed infected recoverd (SEIR)/SIR, agent-based, curve-fitting models. Governments and legislative bodies rely on insights from prediction models to suggest new policies and to assess the effectiveness of enforced policies. Therefore, access to accurate outbreak prediction models is essential to obtain insights into the likely spread and consequences of infectious diseases. The objective of this study is to predict the future COVID-19 situation of Korea. Here, we employed 5 models for this analysis; SEIR, local linear regression (LLR), negative binomial (NB) regression, segment Poisson, deep-learning based long short-term memory models (LSTM) and tree based gradient boosting machine (GBM). After prediction, model performance comparison was evelauated using relative mean squared errors (RMSE) for two sets of train (January 20, 2020-December 31, 2020 and January 20, 2020-January 31, 2021) and testing data (January 1, 2021-February 28, 2021 and February 1, 2021-February 28, 2021) . Except for segmented Poisson model, the other models predicted a decline in the daily confirmed cases in the country for the coming future. RMSE values' comparison showed that LLR, GBM, SEIR, NB, and LSTM respectively, performed well in the forecasting of the pandemic situation of the country. A good understanding of the epidemic dynamics would greatly enhance the control and prevention of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Therefore, with increasing daily confirmed cases since this year, these results could help in the pandemic response by informing decisions about planning, resource allocation, and decision concerning social distancing policies.

A Study on Anxiety, Knowledge, Infection Possibility, Preventive Possibility and Preventive Behavior Level of COVID-19 in General Public (일반 대중의 코로나19에 대한 불안, 지식, 감염 가능성, 감염예방 가능성, 감염예방행위 수행에 관한 연구)

  • Jung, Ae-Ri;Hong, Eun-Joo
    • Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
    • /
    • v.10 no.8
    • /
    • pp.87-98
    • /
    • 2020
  • This study was conducted to identify anxiety, knowledge, possibility of infection, possibility of prevention and performance level for infection prevention among the general public according to the spread of COVID-19. Data were collected from 208 adults in their 20s and 50s from April 6th to 10th in 2020 using questionnaire. Characteristics relative to variables were measured, and analyzed using SPSS 23.0 program for technical statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation. The anxiety level differed according to gender, age, marital status, and live-in partner. The Knowledge score was significantly different according to age and marital status. Possibility of infection was significantly different according to age and residential area. Performance level for infection prevention was significantly different according to gender, age, marital status, and live-in partner. However, preventive possibility was not significantly different regardless of characteristics. These findings may have implications for establishing policies that work well in preventing infectious disease. It is necessary to conduct further research comparing responses of subjects by the stages of infectious disease outbreaks. Further extended studies that include more regions and larger sample sizes are required.

Decentralized Identity Based Digital Certificate System for Prevention of Infectious Diseases (감염병 예방을 위한 분산ID 기반 디지털 증명서 시스템)

  • Park, Sung-chae;Lee, Ju hyun;Park, Keundug;Youm, Heung Youl
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
    • /
    • v.32 no.1
    • /
    • pp.49-66
    • /
    • 2022
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has led many countries around the world to introduce and employ a digital certificate system to prevent infectious diseases, however, there are difficulties in using the compatible digital certificate between countries in that the international standards of the system have not been developed. Accordingly, we propose an improved system, comparing two methods of presenting a certificate, existing QR code-based and a short-range wireless communication-based certificates. The proposed system is a digital certificate system against the spread of infectious disease by storing verification information of the certificate using decentralized identity-based technology on the blockchain. Blockchain-based trust anchor improves security by solving the problem of forgery and alteration of certificates and guaranteeing the identity of certificate issuers and presenters. This system is also expected to enhance usability providing concurrent verification of a number of certificates(vaccination certificates, recovery certificates, test results, identity certificates, etc.) in a single certificate presentation.

A Phenomenological Study on the Emotional Change of the Elderly Aged 65 and older who Experienced COVID-19 Social Situation (코로나-19 사회적 사태를 경험한 65세 이상 노인들의 정서적 변화에 대한 현상학적 연구)

  • Lee, Na-Yun;Kang, Jin-Ho
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
    • /
    • v.14 no.6
    • /
    • pp.171-179
    • /
    • 2020
  • This study was conducted to explore the experience of emotional change among senior citizens aged 65 and older experienced COVID-19 social situation. COVID-19 not only directly affects the elderly as a high-risk infectious disease, it also causes social isolation and depression caused by social distinctions, decreased cognitive skills, and worsened chronic diseases, and has indirect effects. As a result of the study, one component and four sub-components were derived, and the components were emotional changes. As the elderly experienced COVID-19, fear of spreading, fear of increasing the number of deceased and dead, and social distance I experienced depression, tightness, and anticipation for ending due to self-control. No matter how hard you try 'technical prevention', without 'psychological prevention', the anxiety of the elderly will inevitably increase. In this study, mediators for negative emotions experienced by the elderly are provided by providing accurate information to prevent the spread of fear caused by COVID-19 and proving emotional support programs such as 'psychological prevention' as well as 'technical prevention'. I think it will be necessary.

Overview of Legal Measures for Managing Workplace COVID-19 Infection Risk in Several Asia-Pacific Countries

  • Derek, Miller;Tsai, Feng-Jen;Kim, Jiwon;Tejamaya, Mila;Putri, Vilandi;Muto, Go;Reginald, Alex;Phanprasit, Wantanee;Granadillos, Nelia;Farid, Marina Bt Zainal;Capule, Carmela Q.;Lin, Yu-Wen;Park, Jihoon;Chen, Ruey-Yu;Lee, Kyong Hui;Park, Jeongim;Hashimoto, Haruo;Yoon, Chungsik;Padungtod, Chantana;Park, Dong-Uk
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.12 no.4
    • /
    • pp.530-535
    • /
    • 2021
  • Background: Despite the lack of official COVID-19 statistics, various workplaces and occupations have been at the center of COVID-19 outbreaks. We aimed to compare legal measures and governance established for managing COVID-19 infection risks at workplaces in nine Asia and Pacific countries and to recommend key administrative measures. Methods: We collected information on legal measures and governance from both general citizens and workers regarding infection risks such as COVID-19 from industrial hygiene professionals in nine countries (Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Republic of the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) using a structured questionnaire. Results: A governmental body overseeing public health and welfare was in charge of containing the spread and occurrence of infectious diseases under an infectious disease control and prevention act or another special act, although the name of the pertinent organizations and legislation vary among countries. Unlike in the case of other traditional hazards, there have been no specific articles or clauses describing the means of mitigating virus risk in the workplace that are legally required of employers, making it difficult to define the responsibilities of the employer. Each country maintains own legal systems regarding access to the duration, administration, and financing of paid sick leave. Many workers may not have access to paid sick leave even if it is legally guaranteed.