On March 5th, there are now 93,457 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide and 5,621 cases in Korea. Coronavirus is a respiratory infection that has spread worldwide since it was first developed in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Confirmed patients have symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, etc. It is assumed that the virus was caused from animals. As of March 5th, there are no official vaccines to cure the disease. Once a person is infected, antiviral drugs and antibiotics which help the patient to fight against the virus are injected to the person. There are three loopholes that let the virus be spread in Korea.

     The first problem is lack of epidemiologists. An epidemiologist is an expert who prevents the spread of epidemics and devises a countermeasure against viruses. According to the Act on the Prevention and Management of Infectious Diseases, metropolitan governments should hire at least two epidemiologists in their local area. Nevertheless, according to the Hankyoreh news, three of the 17 metropolitan governments, Incheon, Daegu and Ulsan, have epidemiologists below the minimum number of people required by law. In particular, Incheon has no epidemiologists although foreigners are crowded because of international airports. In the case of Daegu and Ulsan, there was only one epidemiologist. After the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015, it was pointed out that recruitment of epidemiologists was necessary, but the number of epidemiologists in the provinces was 45, down from 51, compared to 2016. Bae Sang-Hyeok (Prof. of Preventive Medicine Department, Catholic University of Korea) said, “The number of epidemiologists in Korea is less than countries which are less developed than Korea. The National Assembly of Korea promised to increase the number of epidemiologists but it is dubious them to implement it.”

     The second problem is that the criteria for case definition is narrow. Particularly, the definition about the country is narrow. Case definition means defining targets that need to be monitored, responded and managed for preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Wider case definition is better to monitor more patients and prevent the spread of communicable diseases. According to the initial case definition in Korea, people who travel to Wuhan was the only case to be monitored. For example, a person who had chills and a fever cannot be registered as a suspected patient if she didn’t travel to Wuhan. Indeed, the 16th patient had the corona virus but was not classified as a suspected patient because he only traveled to Thailand. While he was not confirmed as a patient, he met many people and infected his daughter as well. If the case definitions in Korea were wide, the virus transmission by the 16th confirmed patient would have been less. Bae said, “I think the government could have reduced the number of confirmed patients if they expanded the case definition. It would have been better to include not only China but also neighboring countries.”

     Lastly, definition about the symptoms is also narrow. According to the Korea Center for Disease Control & Prevention Call Center (KCDC), the 4th confirmed patient went to Wuhan and entered Incheon Airport on January 20th. According to the KCDC, all people who have been to Hubei Province in Wuhan and have any fever or respiratory symptoms should report to the health authorities. However, even with these criteria, the 4th confirmed patient’s state of health at the time was not included in the criteria. If the case definitions were wide, the virus transmission by the 4th confirmed patient would have been less. 

     Bae said, “Including these problems, resources in Korea to prevent the epidemics are in shortage. In order to respond to infectious diseases, we need to expand medical publicity.”

By Ha Yoon-Seok, Editor-in-Chief
etude1996@pusan.ac.k