1.“No Patient” : Early HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea and Government Response
Korean Journal of Medical History 2025;34(1):209-247
HIV/AIDS control in Korea characterized with “AIDS Prevention Law”, enacted in 1987. It was one of the first separate legal enforcement around the world that governs control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet with significant limitations regarding human rights, as it criminalized HIV infection, and dictates penal action against ‘transmitters’. This papers looks into how HIV/AIDS epidemic started in Korea in 1980s, with specific focus on disease narrative that was constructed by the government. It was known to United States Forces Korea, that HIV was already spreading steady into Korean female sex workers around U.S. military bases in 1985. This information was concealed by Korean Ministry of health, in the face of upcoming international events such as 1988 Seoul Olympics. Instead, the Korean government turned public attention to ‘imported’ cases, constructing narrative that HIV/AIDS as a foreign disease. With direction of president, HIV/AIDS control focus on compulsory testing and isolation of identified risk group of sexual minorities and sex workers around U.S. military bases. This narrative of foreign disease had lasting impact even after democratization of Korea in 1987, as civil society, unaware that HIV/AIDS had already became endemic in Korea, argued to enforced compulsory testing against foreign nationals upon entry. This paper argues that disease narratives were carefully constructed by the government during early phase of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea, and used legal structure as ways to conceal the actual prevalence from both domestic and international attention.
2.“No Patient” : Early HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea and Government Response
Korean Journal of Medical History 2025;34(1):209-247
HIV/AIDS control in Korea characterized with “AIDS Prevention Law”, enacted in 1987. It was one of the first separate legal enforcement around the world that governs control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet with significant limitations regarding human rights, as it criminalized HIV infection, and dictates penal action against ‘transmitters’. This papers looks into how HIV/AIDS epidemic started in Korea in 1980s, with specific focus on disease narrative that was constructed by the government. It was known to United States Forces Korea, that HIV was already spreading steady into Korean female sex workers around U.S. military bases in 1985. This information was concealed by Korean Ministry of health, in the face of upcoming international events such as 1988 Seoul Olympics. Instead, the Korean government turned public attention to ‘imported’ cases, constructing narrative that HIV/AIDS as a foreign disease. With direction of president, HIV/AIDS control focus on compulsory testing and isolation of identified risk group of sexual minorities and sex workers around U.S. military bases. This narrative of foreign disease had lasting impact even after democratization of Korea in 1987, as civil society, unaware that HIV/AIDS had already became endemic in Korea, argued to enforced compulsory testing against foreign nationals upon entry. This paper argues that disease narratives were carefully constructed by the government during early phase of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea, and used legal structure as ways to conceal the actual prevalence from both domestic and international attention.
3.“No Patient” : Early HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea and Government Response
Korean Journal of Medical History 2025;34(1):209-247
HIV/AIDS control in Korea characterized with “AIDS Prevention Law”, enacted in 1987. It was one of the first separate legal enforcement around the world that governs control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet with significant limitations regarding human rights, as it criminalized HIV infection, and dictates penal action against ‘transmitters’. This papers looks into how HIV/AIDS epidemic started in Korea in 1980s, with specific focus on disease narrative that was constructed by the government. It was known to United States Forces Korea, that HIV was already spreading steady into Korean female sex workers around U.S. military bases in 1985. This information was concealed by Korean Ministry of health, in the face of upcoming international events such as 1988 Seoul Olympics. Instead, the Korean government turned public attention to ‘imported’ cases, constructing narrative that HIV/AIDS as a foreign disease. With direction of president, HIV/AIDS control focus on compulsory testing and isolation of identified risk group of sexual minorities and sex workers around U.S. military bases. This narrative of foreign disease had lasting impact even after democratization of Korea in 1987, as civil society, unaware that HIV/AIDS had already became endemic in Korea, argued to enforced compulsory testing against foreign nationals upon entry. This paper argues that disease narratives were carefully constructed by the government during early phase of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea, and used legal structure as ways to conceal the actual prevalence from both domestic and international attention.
4.“No Patient” : Early HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea and Government Response
Korean Journal of Medical History 2025;34(1):209-247
HIV/AIDS control in Korea characterized with “AIDS Prevention Law”, enacted in 1987. It was one of the first separate legal enforcement around the world that governs control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet with significant limitations regarding human rights, as it criminalized HIV infection, and dictates penal action against ‘transmitters’. This papers looks into how HIV/AIDS epidemic started in Korea in 1980s, with specific focus on disease narrative that was constructed by the government. It was known to United States Forces Korea, that HIV was already spreading steady into Korean female sex workers around U.S. military bases in 1985. This information was concealed by Korean Ministry of health, in the face of upcoming international events such as 1988 Seoul Olympics. Instead, the Korean government turned public attention to ‘imported’ cases, constructing narrative that HIV/AIDS as a foreign disease. With direction of president, HIV/AIDS control focus on compulsory testing and isolation of identified risk group of sexual minorities and sex workers around U.S. military bases. This narrative of foreign disease had lasting impact even after democratization of Korea in 1987, as civil society, unaware that HIV/AIDS had already became endemic in Korea, argued to enforced compulsory testing against foreign nationals upon entry. This paper argues that disease narratives were carefully constructed by the government during early phase of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Korea, and used legal structure as ways to conceal the actual prevalence from both domestic and international attention.
5.The Unique Theory of Cold Damage Advocated by Medical Practitioners in the Latter Era of the Joseon Dynasty.
Korean Journal of Medical History 2012;21(1):1-24
The issue of cold damage is one of the major topics of orthodox medicine in East Asia. From the historical view of point, most of the medical practitioners have turned The Theory of Cold Damage to account as their grounds for justifying their own argument. However, it is rare to find a book related to The Theory of Cold Damage in Korea's traditional medicine. Therefore, people have perceived the research status of cold damage is unsatisfactory. This problem could be analyzed by dividing it into a medicinal herb problems and theory problem. First, the medicinal herbs needed for the prescription based on The Theory of Cold Damage don't grow in the Korean Peninsula. Accordingly, there were a lot of restrictions on the free use of these prescriptions. Nevertheless, Chinese medicinal herbs were essential to even the use of the prescriptions besides The Theory of Cold Damage. Accordingly, such aspects do little explain the point that there were few medicine books about The Theory of Cold Damage in Korea. On the other hand, it is hard to exclude the guess that the medical practitioners in the period of the Joseon Dynasty might have presented a theoretically different opinion about cold damage. This study did intensive research on this. As a result of examining the medical practitioners in the latter period of the Joseon Dynasty perceived 'the cold damage to positive and negative meridians' as the case where a patient got attacked by cold as a pathogenic factor in a state of the kidney deficiency. They presented the verdict that kidney deficiency was mostly incurred by sexual relations, and the cold damage to positive and negative meridians broke out when a patient got attacked by cold as a pathogenic factor after having sex. it is an original standpoint shedding light on the relationship between cold damage and the kidney deficiency. The medical practitioners in the latter period of the Joseon Dynasty used Donguibogam as a major text for study on cold damage. In other words, Donguibogam includes the well-organized theory of Yeoksu school who regarded the comparison between internal damage and external damage as important. The medical practitioners in the latter period of the Joseon Dynasty managed to form the theory of the cold damage to positive and negative meridians by deepening the relationship between internal damage and external damage, which was highlighted in Donguibogam. The medical practitioners in the Joseon Dynasty didn't show a big interest in the literature itself, or the so-called The Theory of Cold Damage, which was mainly due to not only the realistic problem of the lack of medicinal herbs needed for applying the prescription to cold damage but also the difference between their positions on cold damage. Therefore, the idea of insufficient research on The Theory of Cold Damage is no more than a kind of optical illusion. On the contrary, we may assume that the medical practitioners in the Joseon Dynasty understood and developed The Theory of Cold Damage in their own way.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group
;
Cold Temperature
;
Far East
;
Hand
;
Humans
;
Kidney
;
Korea
;
Light
;
Medicine, Traditional
;
Meridians
;
Optical Illusions
;
Plants, Medicinal
;
Prescriptions
6.The surface and the back of late Joseon medicine - Centered on medical knowledge system -
Korean Journal of Medical History 2021;30(1):69-100
Many medical books of the late Joseon Dynasty were based on the medical knowledge of Donguibogam. For this reason, most of the studies have explained the medicine of the late Joseon Dynasty focusing on Donguibogam. However, the appearance of medicine in the late Joseon Dynasty is more complex than that. Although the “treatment knowledge” of Donguibogam had a huge impact in the late Joseon Dynasty, the “medical thought” of Donguibogam was not easily established.
This is confirmed through the knowledge system of medical books in the late Joseon Dynasty. Jejungsinpyeon, published by the government in the late Joseon Dynasty, disassembled the contents of Dongibogam and rearranged it into a knowledge system of Uihagibmun. Injeji, which was made in the private sector, followed the same method. They tried to maintain part of the knowledge system of Donguibogam. Nevertheless, the framework of perception that extends from “human” to “disease,” the central idea of Donguibogam, was not maintained.
This shows that there was a considerable amount of respect for the medicine of Ming Dynasty in the late Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, for a more in-depth understanding of medicine in the late Joseon Dynasty, it is necessary to examine in more detail the influences of other medical books such as Uihagibmun, Bonchogangmok, and Gyeongakjeonseo in addition to Donguibogam. This should be understood as a process in which various medical knowledge and systems compete.
7.The surface and the back of late Joseon medicine - Centered on medical knowledge system -
Korean Journal of Medical History 2021;30(1):69-100
Many medical books of the late Joseon Dynasty were based on the medical knowledge of Donguibogam. For this reason, most of the studies have explained the medicine of the late Joseon Dynasty focusing on Donguibogam. However, the appearance of medicine in the late Joseon Dynasty is more complex than that. Although the “treatment knowledge” of Donguibogam had a huge impact in the late Joseon Dynasty, the “medical thought” of Donguibogam was not easily established.
This is confirmed through the knowledge system of medical books in the late Joseon Dynasty. Jejungsinpyeon, published by the government in the late Joseon Dynasty, disassembled the contents of Dongibogam and rearranged it into a knowledge system of Uihagibmun. Injeji, which was made in the private sector, followed the same method. They tried to maintain part of the knowledge system of Donguibogam. Nevertheless, the framework of perception that extends from “human” to “disease,” the central idea of Donguibogam, was not maintained.
This shows that there was a considerable amount of respect for the medicine of Ming Dynasty in the late Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, for a more in-depth understanding of medicine in the late Joseon Dynasty, it is necessary to examine in more detail the influences of other medical books such as Uihagibmun, Bonchogangmok, and Gyeongakjeonseo in addition to Donguibogam. This should be understood as a process in which various medical knowledge and systems compete.
8.Ideals and Reality of Public Health Nursing in Korea: Influence of U.S. Nurse Advisors, 1945~1961
Korean Journal of Medical History 2024;33(2):331-369
South Korea’s national healthcare system after liberation often described as transformation from ‘sanitation’ to ‘public health’. The U.S. military government introduced public health nursing as the primary vehicle for communicating the newly introduced concept of public health to the Korean public. This meant that nursing, which had been in a subordinate position within the healthcare system during the Japanese occupation, had to be repositioned within the healthcare system as an independent and leading professional agent of healthcare. At the same time creating positions for public health nurses within the newly envisioned health center system, and convincing the public that nurses were the primary agents of public health activities. Yet, in resource limited setting, the role of public health nurses was significantly scaled back. Initial plans for institutionalized, community-wide health care through home visits shifted to addressing the challenges facing Korean society, including maternal and child health and infectious disease prevention. Ironically, the expansion of health centers during late 1950s diminished the position of public health nurses within local government health systems, who were gradually replaced by male administrative staff. The role of public health nurses was greatly curtailed in the 1960s, but they laid the groundwork for later community nursing and health care efforts. At the same time, public health nurses were assigned with new role of ‘visiting’ local health centers for observation, education, and management. Public health nursing allows to look beyond the ideological and institutional dimensions to examine how new concepts and practices of “public health” were actually transmitted to communities in post-liberation Korea.
9.Special issue on therapeutic antibodies and biopharmaceuticals.
Experimental & Molecular Medicine 2017;49(3):e304-
No abstract available.
Antibodies*
10.Commentary to "Survival rate of Astra Tech implants with maxiilary sinus lift".
Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 2014;40(2):96-97
No abstract available.