Within 2 years ago, 10,75% of population had acquired any disease. Most common disease are bronchitis and intestinal tract diseases. 24,20% of patients access to the communal health station, among them 73,8% are satisfied with the services. Some proposed were recommended to improve quality of health services
epidemiology ; Health Services ; bronchitis ; Gastrointestinal Tract

OBJECTIVETo obtain the exposure-response functions that could be used in health-based risk assessment of particulate air pollution in China.

METHODSMeta analysis was conducted on the literatures on air particulate matter and its adverse health outcomes in China and worldwide.

RESULTSFor each health outcome from morbidity to mortality changes, the relative risks were estimated when the concentration of air particulate matter increased to some certain units.

CONCLUSIONThe exposure-response functions recommended here can be further applied to health risk assessment of air particulate matter in China.

Acute Disease ; Adult ; Air Pollutants ; adverse effects ; toxicity ; Asthma ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Bronchitis ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Child ; China ; Dust ; Environmental Exposure ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Mortality ; Particle Size ; Risk ; Risk Assessment

PURPOSE: Pertussis is a highly communicable infectious disease in children with high mortality, especially in young infants. The incidence of pertussis in South Korea has decreased to about 10 cases a year in late '90s. Doubting previously reported incidences of pertussis, we designed this study to establish exact epidemiology and a diagnostic basis of pertussis. METHODS: From Mar. 2000 to Mar. 2001, polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and cultures of nasopharyngeal aspirates were taken from 49 patients who were clinically suspected of pertussis in Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital. RESULTS:Among 49 patients suspected of pertussis, 10 cases showed positive results by PCR method. Four out of those 10 cases were positive in culture. The peak outbreak was noticed in the spring(Mar.-May) and the autumn(Sep.-Nov.). The mean age of the patients was 3.6 months. Eight of the 10 cases which were PCR positive results proved not to be immunized against pertussis. CONCLUSION: Most of the pertussis patients in our study were diagnosed as bronchiolitis, pneumonia or bronchitis at the beginning of the disease and only a few patients showed typical clinical manifestations of pertussis, including whooping. When the above results are taken together, we suggest the possibility that the actual prevalence of pertussis in South Korea might be higher than that of previous reports. The importance of pertussis screen tests should be emphasized in children with severe coughs.
Bronchiolitis ; Bronchitis ; Child* ; Communicable Diseases ; Cough ; Epidemiology ; Heart ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Korea ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Whooping Cough*

This study was performed to investigate the etiologic agents, age distribution, clinical manifestations and seasonal occurrence of acute viral lower respiratory tract infections in children. We confirmed viral etiologies using nasopharyngeal aspirates in 237 patients of the ages of 15 years or younger who were hospitalized for acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) from March 1996 to February 1998 at Samsung Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea. The overall isolation rate was 22.1%. The viral pathogens identified were adenovirus (12.7%), influenza virus type A (21.1%), -type B (13.9%), parainfluenza virus type 1 (13.5%), -type 2 (1.3%), -type 3 (16.0%) and respiratory syncytial virus (21.5%). The occurrence of ALRIs was highest in the first year of life, although parainfluenza virus type 1 infection occurred predominantly in the second year of life and influenza virus caused illnesses in all age groups. The specific viruses are frequently associated with specific clinical syndromes of ALRI. The respiratory agents and associated syndromes frequently have characteristic seasonal patterns. This study will help us to estimate the etiologic agents of ALRI, and establish a program for the prevention and treatment. An annual nationwide survey is necessary to understand the viral epidemiology associated with respiratory illnesses in Korea.
Acute Disease ; Adenoviridae Infections/epidemiology ; Adolescence ; Age Distribution ; Animal ; Bronchitis/virology ; Bronchitis/epidemiology ; Cell Line ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized/statistics & numerical data ; Child, Preschool ; Croup/epidemiology ; Female ; Human ; Infant ; Influenza/epidemiology ; Influenza A Virus, Human ; Influenza B Virus ; Kidney/cytology ; Korea/epidemiology ; Liver/cytology ; Male ; Parainfluenza Virus 1, Human ; Parainfluenza Virus 2, Human ; Parainfluenza Virus 3, Human ; Paramyxovirus Infections/epidemiology ; Pneumonia, Viral/virology* ; Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology* ; Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/epidemiology ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses ; Respiratory Tract Infections/virology* ; Respiratory Tract Infections/epidemiology* ; Seasons

Despite the existence of an active vaccination program, recently emerged strains of nephropathogenic infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in Korea have caused significant economic losses in the poultry industry. In this study, we assessed the pathogenic and antigenic characteristics of a K-IIb type field strain of IBV that emerged in Korea since 2003, such as Kr/Q43/06. Specific pathogen free 1-week-old chickens exhibited severe respiratory symptoms (dyspnea) and nephropathogenic lesions (swollen kidneys with nephritis and urate deposits) following challenge with the recent IBV field strain. The antigenic relatedness (R value), based on a calculated virus neutralization index, of the K-IIb type field strain and K-IIa type strain KM91 (isolated in 1991) was 30%, which indicated that the recent strain, Kr/Q43/06, is a new variant that is antigenically distinct from strain KM91. This report is the first to document the emergence of a new antigenic variant of nephropathogenic IBV in chicken from Korea.
Animals ; Antigens, Viral ; *Chickens ; Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology/*veterinary/virology ; Infectious bronchitis virus/classification/*pathogenicity ; Korea ; Nephritis/*veterinary/virology ; Poultry Diseases/*virology ; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms ; Virulence

bronchitis were less frequently observed. Following the KATRD cough-management guidelines, 91.2% of the subjects improved after 4 weeks of treatment. Responders were younger, had a longer duration of cough, and an initial impression of CVA. In univariate and multivariate analyses, an initial impression of CVA was the only factor related to better treatment response.CONCLUSION: The causes of chronic cough in Korea differed from those reported in other countries. The current Korean guidelines proved efficient for treating Korean patients with chronic cough.]]>
Asthma ; Bronchitis ; Cohort Studies ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Disease Management ; Eosinophils ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung Diseases ; Multivariate Analysis ; Observational Study ; Pregnant Women ; Retrospective Studies ; Tuberculosis

In order to investigate the prevalence and track genetic and antigenic evolutions of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and their prevalence in Guangxi, China since 1985, gene amplification and sequencing and virus neutralization (VN) test on chicken embryo tracheal organ cultures were used in genotyping and serotyping of 28 IBV isolates during 2009-2011 in Guangxi. The results of N gene sequencing and comparison showed that the 28 isolates and reference strains were classified into three groups, and most isolates belonged to group Ill, while the isolates in 1985-2008 belonged to groups IV and II. The data of VN test indicated that the 28 isolates belonged to 6 serotypes; among them, 71. 4% belonged to serotypes 1, 2, and 3, and 11 (39.3%) shared the same serotype with the current vaccine strains. Given the data of our previous study, it is found that prevalent serotypes and their proportions varied in different areas of Guangxi and during different periods. These data lay a good foundation for developing an oil-emulsified inactivated polyvalent vaccine containing local dominant serotypes for the effective prevention and control of infectious bronchitis.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral ; immunology ; Chick Embryo ; Chickens ; China ; epidemiology ; Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; immunology ; veterinary ; virology ; Infectious bronchitis virus ; classification ; genetics ; immunology ; isolation & purification ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Poultry Diseases ; epidemiology ; immunology ; virology

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of comprehensive interventions in community on smoking, chronic bronchitis, and asthma in rural areas of Beijing.

METHODSTwenty-three villages in rural areas of Beijing were randomly divided into interventional (13 villages) and control villages (10 villages) in 1992. Comprehensive interventions including education of former-smokers and improvement of living environment were carried out in the interventional villages, and none was done in the control villages. In April 2000, surveys on smoking, chronic bronchitis, and asthma were carried out among 34,436 participants aged 15 or more in the interventional and control villages. During the same period, knowledge on prevention from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), living environments, and smoking were assessed among 1658 high-risk individuals of COPD at baseline and following-up period.

RESULTSThe scores of knowledge and improvement on living environments in the interventional villages were significantly higher than those in control villages (P < 0.001). The decrease rate of smoking and current smoking rate in the interventional villages were significantly higher than in the control villages (0.4% vs -0.8%, P < 0.001; 2.4% vs 1.3%, P < 0.001) in men, while not different in women (P > 0.05). Among never smokers at baseline, the accumulated incidence of smoking among people aged 15 to 24 from 1993 to 2000 was significantly lower in the interventional villages than in the control villages in men (18.9% vs 23.7%, P = 0.005) and in women (0% vs 0.7%, P = 0.005). Daily cigarettes smoked by smokers in the interventional villages were less than in control villages in both men (14.8 +/- 7.0 vs 17.2 +/- 8.2 cigs daily, P < 0.001) and women (12.8 +/- 6.9 vs 13.4 +/- 7.2 cigs daily, P = 0.088). The increase of prevalence of chronic bronchitis in the interventional villages was less than in the control villages (men: 0.9% vs 1.3%, P = 0.012; women: 0.1% vs 0.3%, P = 0.003). After the age factor is adjusted, odds ratio (OR) for accumulated incidence of chronic bronchitis from 1993 to 2000 in the interventional villages were 0.80 (95%CI: 0.60-1.07) for men, 0.76 (95%CI: 0.45-1.28) in women. The OR for asthma was not significant in both men and women.

CONCLUSIONSComprehensive interventions in community may improve knowledge of COPD prevention and living environments, decrease the smoking rate, cigarettes smoked per day, and incidence of chronic bronchitis, but have no significant effects on asthma.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Asthma ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Attitude to Health ; Bronchitis ; epidemiology ; etiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Chronic Disease ; Female ; Health Education ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Rural Health ; Rural Population ; Smoking ; adverse effects ; Smoking Cessation

The association between ambient temperature and acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis (AECB) was still unknown. Therefore, we performed an epidemiological study in a large hospital of Shanghai to explore the relationship about temperature and outpatient visit for AECB. We adopted a quasi-Poisson generalized additive models and distributed lag nonlinear models to estimate the accumulative effects of temperature on AECB across multiple days. We found significant non-linear effects of cold temperature on hospital visits for AECB, and the potential effect of cold temperature might last more than 2 weeks. The relative risks of extreme cold (first percentiles of temperature throughout the study period) and cold (10th percentile of temperature) temperature over lags 0-14 d were 2.98 [95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.77, 5.04] and 1.63 (95% CI: 1.21, 2.19), compared with the 25th percentile of temperature. However, we found no positive association between hospital visits and hot weather. This study showed that exposure to both extreme cold and cold temperatures were associated with increased outpatient visits for AECB in a large hospital of Shanghai.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Air Pollutants ; adverse effects ; Ambulatory Care ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; epidemiology ; pathology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Cold Temperature ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Weather ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationships and interaction among the exposure to environmental smoke, family history of chronic bronchitis (CB) and CB, in rural women.

METHODSA population-based case-control study chi(2) was used to analyze the relationship between environmental smoke exposure, CB family history and CB. Additive effects model was used to analyze the interaction.

RESULTSIn the first stage, 157 CB patients were screened from 24 268 women residents (prevalence rate is 6.47 per thousand), then 92 patients (case group) and 114 healthy women (control group) were investigated in the second stage. Results showed that: coal/firewood for heating (OR = 36.21) and CB family history (OR = 6.41) might serve as the risk factors of CB in rural women (P < 0.05). Factors as frequent cooking and using coal/firewood for heating had a positive interaction with family history of CB in rural women, CB with S as 5.39 and 9.02, attributable proportions of interaction (API) as 72% and 88%, relative excess risk of interaction (RERI) as 6.50 and 225.99, respectively.

CONCLUSIONUsing coal/firewood for heating and CB family history might be the risk factors of CB for rural women. A positive interaction between cooking frequently, heating model and CB family history was also seen.

Adult ; Air Pollution, Indoor ; adverse effects ; Bronchitis, Chronic ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; epidemiology ; Cooking ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors ; Rural Population ; Smoke ; adverse effects