Gwangju City Launches Infectious Disease Management Support Team... Full-Scale Operation Begins

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 18th that it has launched the Gwangju Infectious Disease Management Support Group and has begun full-scale operations to systematically manage infectious diseases within the region.

The Infectious Disease Management Support Group was originally scheduled to open next month, but the schedule was moved up, and since May, it has been privately entrusted to the Chosun University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation (Chosun University Department of Preventive Medicine). After appointing the head, hiring staff, and building the system, it started operations this month.

On the same day, a plaque ceremony for the ‘Gwangju Metropolitan City Infectious Disease Management Support Group’ was held at the Health and Environment Research Institute, attended by officials from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Gwangju City, Jeonnam and Jeonbuk provinces, and the Infectious Disease Management Support Group. They discussed sharing know-how with support groups from other cities and provinces and establishing a joint quarantine system for the Honam region.

The Infectious Disease Management Support Group is led by Professor Ryu So-yeon of the Chosun University Department of Preventive Medicine and consists of eight specialized researchers in preventive medicine, public health, immunology, and nursing. During normal times, it develops infectious disease management policies tailored to regional characteristics and performs roles such as ▲ surveillance and analysis of infectious diseases within the region ▲ monitoring domestic and international infectious disease trends and building an infectious disease database ▲ establishing and supporting the implementation of infectious disease management plans ▲ supporting epidemiological investigations ▲ educating local governments and medical institution infectious disease officers ▲ conducting infectious disease crisis response education and training ▲ and public relations.

In emergencies, it immediately switches to a response organization to undertake ▲ infectious disease outbreak surveillance ▲ on-site epidemiological investigations ▲ devising community spread response strategies in case of mass patient occurrences, thereby supporting regional infectious disease responses.

The support group also provided assistance such as school risk assessments, epidemiological investigations, and identifying close contacts when suspected COVID-19 cases occurred among students recently.

Lee Pyeong-hyung, Director of the Welfare and Health Bureau, said, “With the establishment of the Infectious Disease Management Support Group, we expect the community’s ability to respond independently to infectious disease crises to be strengthened,” adding, “We will do our best to ensure professional and proactive infectious disease management at the initial stage of outbreaks to protect citizens’ safety and health and ultimately prevent infectious diseases.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.