Increased tuberculosis burden due to demographic transition in Korea from 2001 to 2010.

BACKGROUND: Notified tuberculosis (TB) cases in Korea have not decreased over the last decade (2001-2010). METHODS: To clarify the reasons, we analyzed an annual report on notified tuberculosis patients and age-specific population drift in Korea. RESULTS: Compared to the age-specific notified TB cases between 2001 and 2010, distinctive features in notified TB cases and new cases increased markedly in people aged 45-54 years and in patients over 65 years old, whereas those between 15-34 years in 2010 decreased drastically. In particular, notified TB individuals over 65 years old occupied 29.6% of the cases in 2010, which was 1.5 times higher than that in 2001. The main reason not to decrease in notified TB patients for the last decade (2001-2010) was due to the increasing elderly population as well as the aging of baby boomers, which have a higher risk of TB development. CONCLUSION: Korea needs to pay attention to the older population in order to successfully decrease the burden of TB in the future.

Complete Genome Sequence of Mycobacterium bovis BCG Korea, the Korean Vaccine Strain for Substantial Production.

Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only vaccine available against tuberculosis, and the strains used worldwide represent a family of daughter strains with distinct genotypic characteristics. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of M. bovis BCG Korea, the strain that will be actually used in Korea for vaccine production.

The national status of tuberculosis using nationwide medical records survey of patients with tuberculosis in Korea.

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) has been assessed based on the data of the analysis of TB patients notified to the surveillance system in Korea. However, the national status of TB is not validated through this surveillance system. The objective is to determine the epidemiology of TB and to understand the accurate status of TB patients treated in private institutions. METHODS: Medical records of 53,579 patients who had been diagnosed with TB in 2008 were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 53,579 patients, the number of sputum smear positive cases was 15,639(29.2%) and the number of new cases was 39,191 (73.1%). The drug resistance rate of new cases was 5.3%, while the rate stood at 13.3% for TB patients with treatment history. The number of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients was 2,472 (4.6%), which consists of 2.9% of new cases and 9.3% of TB patients with prior treatment history. The number of extensively drug-resistant TB patients was 749 (1.4%), consisting of 1.1% of new cases and 2.2% of TB patients with prior treatment history. In terms of treatment outcomes, 66.4% of all TB patients, 70.5% of new cases, 64.4% of relapse cases, and 46.8% of MDR-TB cases were cured or completed. It was inferred that in 2008, the total number of TB patients reached 70,767, 145.6 per 100,000 people (95% confidence interval, 145.5~145.7). CONCLUSION: We conclude that the medical records review of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) data can be very effective in promoting the understanding of the current status of TB in private institutions.

In-Flight Transmission of Novel Influenza A (H1N1).

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed two patients, who had taken the same plane from Los Angeles to Seoul, with novel influenza A (H1N1). Through contact tracing, we concluded that the second patient was infected during the flight.

[National level response to pandemic (H1N1) 2009].

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the emergence of a novel influenza on April 24, 2009, and they declared pandemic on June 11. In Korea, the proportion of influenza-like illness and the consumption of antiviral agents peaked in early November. The government established the Central Headquarters for Influenza Control and operated the emergency response system. In the quarantine stations, we checked the body temperature and collected quarantine questionnaires from all the arrivals from infected countries. We also isolated the confirmed cases in the national isolation hospitals. However, as the community outbreaks were reported, we changed strategy from containment to mitigation. We changed the antiviral agent prescription guideline so that doctors could prescribe antiviral agents to all patients with acute febrile respiratory illness, without a laboratory diagnosis. Also the 470 designated hospitals were activated to enhance the efficacy of treatment. We vaccinated about 12 million people and manage the adverse event following the immunization management system. In 2010, we will establish additional national isolation wards and support hospitals to establish fever clinics and isolation intensive care unit (ICU) beds. We will also make a computer program for managing the national isolation hospitals and designated hospitals. We will establish isolation rooms and expand the laboratory in quarantine stations and we will construct a bio-safety level 3 laboratory in each province. In addition, we plan to construct a bio-safety level 4 laboratory at a new Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) facilities in Ossong.