• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2004

Scutellaria baicalensis and Phellodendron amurense, which have been used traditionally in treatment of many kinds of illness including infectious diseases, were extracted with hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and water, respectively and serially. Antimicrobial activities of the extracts were examined by disk diffusion method. Methanol extract from Scutellaria baicalensis revealed high antimicrobial activities against MRSA, Gm-bacteria and Candida albicans, dichloromethnane extract from Phellodendron amurense showed lower activity than the extract of Scutellaria baicalensis. Results suggest that methanol extract from Scutellaria baicalensis could be one of the candidates for new antimicrobial agent against the antibiotic-resistant microorganisms by further steps for the purification, determination of structure and synthesis.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.684-694
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• 2019

Information spread in networks is universal in many real-world phenomena such as propagation of infectious diseases, diffusion of a new technology, computer virus/spam infection in the internet, and tweeting and retweeting of popular topics. The problem of finding the information source is to pick out the true source if information spread. It is of practical importance because harmful diffusion can be mitigated or even blocked e.g., by vaccinating human or installing security updates. This problem has been much studied, where it has been shown that the detection probability cannot be beyond 31% even for regular trees if the number of infected nodes is sufficiently large. In this paper, we study the impact of an anti-information spreading on the original information source detection. We consider an active defender in the network who spreads the anti-information against to the original information simultaneously and propose an inverse Voronoi partition based inference approach, called Voronoi Inference to find the source. We perform various simulations for the proposed method and obtain the detection probability that outperforms to the existing prior work.

• 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 Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2022

More than 2 years after the explosion of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, extensive efforts have been made to develop safe and efficacious vaccines against infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The pandemic has opened a new era of vaccine development based on next-generation platforms, including messenger RNA (mRNA)-based technologies, and paved the way for the future of mRNA-based therapeutics to provide protection against a wide range of infectious diseases. Multiple vaccines have been developed at an unprecedented pace to protect against COVID-19 worldwide. However, important knowledge gaps remain to be addressed, especially in terms of how vaccines induce immunogenicity and efficacy in those who are elderly. Here, we discuss the various vaccine platforms that have been utilized to combat COVID-19 and emphasize how these platforms can be a powerful tool to react quickly to future pandemics.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Prior to the end of the 20th century, microorganism research was limited to culture and has since been revolutionized by genetic analysis. Microorganisms, including bacteria, can cause disease, but most of them are commensal microorganisms in our bodies. This knowledge changes the pathological approach to infectious diseases and lends to a new perspective on the effects of gut and oral microorganisms on disease and health. The oral cavity, particularly the periodontal pocket, is considered to be a reservoir of microbes that cause disease, and oral microbial control is becoming more important. In this review, I will examine the changes in the microbiological revolution and the meaning of oral healthcare management based on those changes.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.530-535
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• 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.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2009

Objectives The purpose of this study is to collect the statistics of pediatric problems and to develop more effective oriental medical treatments for pediatric diseases, their clinical applicability, and chief complaints on pediatric inpatients in oriental hospitals. Methods The study was composed of seventy inpatients that were age from 0 to 20, had received hospital treatment at the pediatrics in Dongguk Bun-Dang Oriental Medicine Hospital for seven years from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2008. The chief complaints were mainly categorized by oral examination on their patients. Results 1. In this study, male children were thirty one and female children were 39. Thus, sex ration of male to female was 0.79:1. 2. In age distribution, one month to one year were three (4.3%), 1 to six years were forty two (60%), six to ten years were fifteen (21.4%), and ten to twenty years were ten (14.3%). 3. In November, the number of inpatients was the highest (15.7%) in a year. However, there were no significant seasonal differences. 4. In the systemic division, the respiratory diseases : 44(62.9%), the digestive diseases : 11(15.7%), the infectious diseases : 5(7.1%), the musculoskeletal diseases : 3(4.3%), the diseases of nervous system : 3(4.3%), the gynecologic diseases : 1(1.4%), the liver and biliary disorders : 1(1.4%), and etc. : 3(4.3%). 5. The chief complaint of the inpatients is pneumonia, a common cold, respiratory complex symptoms, rhinitis, sinusitis, bronchitis, tonsillitis, diarrhea and etc. Conclusions The two main causes of inpatients were respiratory diseases and digestive disease. More data of inpatients are required for further study. Thus, the new diseases and treatment methods should be studied as a field of oriental medical treatment.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2005

The chromatographic separation of the hexane soluble fraction of the methanol extract of the aerial parts of Solidago virga-aurea var. gigantea Mo. (Compositae) led to the isolation of a new benzylbenzoate (1) together with four known benzylbenzoates (2-5). Their structures were determined as 2-methoxybenzyl-2-hydroxybenzoate (1), benzyl-2-hydroxy-6-methoxy­benzoate (2), 2-methoxybenzyl-2,6-dimethoxybenzoate (3), 2-methoxybenzyl-2-methoxy-6­hydroxybenzoate (4), and benzyl-2,6-dimethoxybenzoate (5). Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods. Biological effects of compounds, 1 and 2, were investigated in vitro usingherapeutic agents by stimulating macrophage functions, with potential use in the treat­ mouse peritoneal macrophages. The benzylbenzoates (1 and 2) could serve as immunotherapeutic agents by stimulating macrophage functions, with potential use in the treatment of infectious diseases.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.529-537
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• 2009

Drug-resistant tuberculosis in children has important implications for both the patients and tuberculosis control programs. In Korea, among all new patients, the isoniazid resistance rate was 9.9% and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis rate was 2.7% in 2004 (in patients aged 10-19 yr, the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis rate reached 2.1%). Tuberculosis in pediatric patients is difficult to diagnose because many children have nonspecific clinical signs and the detection rates of acid-fast bacilli smears and cultures are low. Therefore, every effort should be made to identify adult sources and obtain information on drug susceptibility because symptomatic adult patients have a higher chance of culture positivity and drug-susceptibility patterns are the same in most adult-child pair patients. Korean children are at significant risk of drug-resistant tuberculosis. As the isoniazid resistance rate is greater than 4% among the new cases in Korea, a four-drug regimen should be considered for initial treatment of children with active tuberculosis, unless drug-susceptibility test results are available. Treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in children is challenging and there are only few available data. Tuberculosis control programs should be continuous with specific focus on pediatric populations because they can serve as reservoirs for future active cases. Further studies are needed regarding treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in children.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.175-185
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• 2023

Recently, novel viral infections such as COVID-19 have spread and pose a serious public health problem. In particular, these diseases have a fatal effect on the elderly, threatening life and causing serious social and economic losses. Accordingly, applications such as telemedicine, healthcare, and disease prevention using the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) have been introduced in many industries to improve disease detection, monitoring, and quarantine performance. However, since existing technologies are not applied quickly and comprehensively to the sudden emergence of infectious diseases, they have not been able to prevent large-scale infection and the nationwide spread of infectious diseases in society. Therefore, in this paper, we try to predict the spread of infection by collecting various infection information with regional limitations through a virus disease information collector and performing AI analysis and severity matching through an AI broker. Finally, through the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, danger alerts are issued to the elderly, messages are sent to block the spread, and information on evacuation from infected areas is quickly provided. A realistic elderly support system compares the location information of the elderly with the information of the infected area and provides an intuitive danger area (infected area) avoidance function with an augmented reality-based smartphone application. When the elderly visit an infected area is confirmed, quarantine management services are provided automatically. In the future, the proposed system can be used as a method of preventing a crushing accident due to sudden crowd concentration in advance by identifying the location-based user density.