Kyungmin Huh

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been widely implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We assessed the effect of NPIs on hospitalisations for pneumonia, influenza, COPD and asthma. This retrospective, ecological study compared the weekly incidence of hospitalisation for four respiratory conditions before (January 2016-January 2020) and during (February-July 2020) the implementation of NPI against COVID-19. Hospitalisations for all four respiratory conditions decreased substantially during the intervention period. The cumulative incidence of admissions for COPD and asthma was 58% and 48% of the mean incidence during the 4 preceding years, respectively.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an emerging threat worldwide. It remains unclear how comorbidities affect the risk of infection and severity of COVID-19. Methods: This is a nationwide retrospective case-control study of 219,961 individuals, aged 18 years or older, whose medical costs for COVID-19 testing were claimed until May 15, 2020. COVID-19 diagnosis and infection severity were identified from reimbursement data using diagnosis codes and on the basis of respiratory support use, respectively. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using multiple logistic regression, after adjusting for age, sex, region, healthcare utilization, and insurance status. Results: The COVID-19 group (7,341 of 219,961) was young and had a high proportion of female. Overall, 13.0% (954 of 7,341) of the cases were severe. The severe COVID-19 group had older patients and a proportion of male ratio than did the non-severe group. Diabetes (odds ratio range [ORR], 1.206-1.254), osteoporosis (ORR, 1.128-1.157), rheumatoid arthritis (ORR, 1.207-1.244), substance use (ORR, 1.321-1.381), and schizophrenia (ORR, 1.614-1.721) showed significant association with COVID-19. In terms of severity, diabetes (OR, 1.247; 95% confidential interval, 1.009-1.543), hypertension (ORR, 1.245-1.317), chronic lower respiratory disease (ORR, 1.216-1.233), chronic renal failure, and end-stage renal disease (ORR, 2.052-2.178) were associated with severe COVID-19.

This retrospective cohort study examines the incidence of acute myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke after COVID-19 infection among vaccinated vs unvaccinated adults in Korea.

BACKGROUND: From May to July 2015, the Republic of Korea experienced the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outside the Arabian Peninsula. A total of 186 patients, including 36 deaths, had been diagnosed with MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection as of September 30th, 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained information of patients who were confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was diagnosed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 55 years (range, 16 to 86). A total of 55.4% of the patients had one or more coexisting medical conditions. The most common symptom was fever (95.2%). At admission, leukopenia (42.6%), thrombocytopenia (46.6%), and elevation of aspartate aminotransferase (42.7%) were observed. Pneumonia was detected in 68.3% of patients at admission and developed in 80.8% during the disease course. Antiviral agents were used for 74.7% of patients. Mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and convalescent serum were employed for 24.5%, 7.1%, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. Older age, presence of coexisting medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, presence of dyspnea, hypotension, and leukocytosis at admission, and the use of mechanical ventilation were revealed to be independent predictors of death. CONCLUSION: The clinical features of MERS-CoV infection in the Republic of Korea were similar to those of previous outbreaks in the Middle East. However, the overall mortality rate (20.4%) was lower than that in previous reports. Enhanced surveillance and active management of patients during the outbreak may have resulted in improved outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Many countries have implemented nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to determine whether NPIs led to the decline in the incidences of respiratory infections. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, ecological study using a nationwide notifiable diseases database and a respiratory virus sample surveillance collected from January 2016 through July 2020 in the Republic of Korea. Intervention period was defined as February-July 2020, when the government implemented NPIs nationwide. Observed incidences in the intervention period were compared with the predicted incidences by an autoregressive integrated moving average model and the 4-year mean cumulative incidences (CuIs) in the same months of the preintervention period. RESULTS: Five infectious diseases met the inclusion criteria: chickenpox, mumps, invasive pneumococcal disease, scarlet fever, and pertussis. The incidences of chickenpox and mumps during the intervention period were significantly lower than the prediction model. The CuIs (95% confidence interval) of chickenpox and mumps were 36.4% (23.9-76.3%) and 63.4% (48.0-93.3%) of the predicted values. Subgroup analysis showed that the decrease in the incidence was universal for chickenpox, while mumps showed a marginal reduction among those aged <18 years, but not in adults. The incidence of respiratory viruses was significantly lower than both the predicted incidence (19.5%; 95% confidence interval, 11.8-55.4%) and the 4-year mean CuIs in the preintervention period (24.5%; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of NPIs was associated with a significant reduction in the incidences of several respiratory infections in Korea.