2019 Tabletop Exercise for Laboratory Diagnosis and Analyses of Unknown Disease Outbreaks by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Objectives@#The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published “A Guideline for Unknown Disease Outbreaks (UDO).” The aim of this report was to introduce tabletop exercises (TTX) to prepare for UDO in the future. @*Methods@#The UDO Laboratory Analyses Task Force in Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April 2018, assigned unknown diseases into 5 syndromes, designed an algorithm for diagnosis, and made a panel list for diagnosis by exclusion. Using the guidelines and laboratory analyses for UDO, TTX were introduced. @*Results@#Since September 9th , 2018, the UDO Laboratory Analyses Task Force has been preparing TTX based on a scenario of an outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus. In December 2019, through TTX, individual missions, epidemiological investigations, sample treatments, diagnosis by exclusions, and next generation sequencing analysis were discussed, and a novel coronavirus was identified as the causal pathogen. @*Conclusion@#Guideline and laboratory analyses for UDO successfully applied in TTX. Conclusions drawn from TTX could be applied effectively in the analyses for the initial response to COVID-19, an ongoing epidemic of 2019 - 2020. Therefore, TTX should continuously be conducted for the response and preparation against UDO.

Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of Korean patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 6

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes varies geographically. In Korea, genotypes 1 and 2 comprise more than 90% of HCV infections, while genotype 6 is very rare. This study compared the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with genotype 6 HCV infection with those infected with HCV genotypes 1 and 2. METHODS: This was a prospective, multicenter HCV cohort study that enrolled 1,173 adult patients, of which 930 underwent HCV genotype analysis, and only 9 (1.0%) were found to be infected with genotype 6 HCV. The clinical and epidemiological parameters of the genotypes were compared. RESULTS: The patients with genotype 6 HCV had a mean age of 41.5 years, 77.8% were male, and they had no distinct laboratory features. A sustained virologic response (SVR) was observed in four (67%) of six patients who received antiviral therapy. Risk factors such as the presence of a tattoo (n=6, 66.7%), more than three sexual partners (n=3, 33.3%), and injection drug use (n=3, 33.3%) were more common among genotype 6 patients than among genotypes 1 or 2. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiology and treatment response of patients infected with genotype 6 HCV differed significantly from those with genotypes 1 or 2, warranting continuous monitoring.

Risk Factors for Neurologic Complications of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease in the Republic of Korea, 2009

In 2009, the first outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) or herpangina (HP) caused by enterovirus 71 occurred in the Republic of Korea. This study inquired into risk factors associated with complications of HFMD or HP. A retrospective medical records review was conducted on HFMD or HP patients for whom etiologic viruses had been verified in 2009. One hundred sixty-eight patients were examined for this investigation. Eighty patients were without complications while 88 were accompanied by complications, and 2 had expired. Enterovirus 71 subgenotype C4a was the most prevalent in number with 67 cases (54.9%). In the univariate analysis, the disease patterns of HFMD rather than HP, fever longer than 4 days, peak body temperature over 39degrees C, vomiting, headache, neurologic signs, serum glucose over 100 mg/dL, and having an enterovirus 71 as a causative virus were significant risk factors of the complications. After multiple logistic analysis, headache (Odds ratio [OR], 10.75; P < 0.001) and neurologic signs (OR, 42.76; P < 0.001) were found to be the most significant factors. Early detection and proper management of patients with aforementioned risk factors would be necessary in order to attain a better clinical outcome.

Enterovirus 71-associated hand, foot and mouth diseases with neurologic symptoms, a university hospital experience in Korea, 2009 / 소아과

PURPOSE: Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is a common viral illness in children, which is usually mild and self-limiting. However, in recent epidemics of HFMD in Asia, enterovirus 71 (EV71) has been recognized as a causative agent with severe neurological symptoms with or without cardiopulmonary involvement. HFMD was epidemic in Korea in the spring of 2009. Severe cases with complications including death have been reported. The clinical characteristics in children with neurologic manifestations of EV71 were studied in Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. METHODS: Examinations for EV71 were performed from the stools, respiratory secretion or CSF of children who presented neurologic symptoms associated with HFMD by realtime PCR. Clinical and radiologic data of the patients were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: EV71 was isolated from the stool of 16 patients but not from respiratory secretion or CSF. Among the 16 patients, meningitis (n=10) was the most common manifestation, followed by Guillain-Barre syndrome (n=3), meningoencephalitis (n=2), poliomyelitis-like paralytic disease (n=1), and myoclonus (n=1). Gene analysis showed that most of them were caused by EV71 subgenotype C4a, which was prevalent in China in 2008. CONCLUSION: Because EV71 causes severe complications and death in children, a surveillance system to predict upcoming outbreaks should be established and maintained and adequate public health measures are needed to control disease.