Daejeon Health and Environment Research Institute, Respiratory Virus Prevention Surveillance Including 'COVID-19'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Daejeon City Health and Environment Research Institute will include COVID-19 in the influenza and respiratory virus pathogen surveillance project and expand the participating medical institutions.

On the 10th, the City Health and Environment Research Institute announced that it made this decision reflecting the possibility of simultaneous outbreaks of COVID-19 and influenza, and the increasing need to detect and respond early to any resurgence of COVID-19 in the region.

The existing surveillance project included eight types of viruses such as influenza, adenovirus, bocavirus, and parainfluenza virus.

The project proceeds by receiving specimens from suspected acute respiratory virus patients from primary and secondary medical institutions, conducting laboratory tests, and feeding back the results.

The City Health and Environment Research Institute plans to operate from mid-month by adding the COVID-19 virus to the currently monitored eight respiratory disease viruses and expanding the participating medical institutions in the pathogen surveillance project.

Currently, the City Health and Environment Research Institute, in cooperation with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, analyzes causative pathogens of respiratory diseases in patients visiting cooperating hospitals in the Daejeon area with respiratory symptoms every week, conducting seasonal epidemic pattern analysis and cause identification of viral respiratory infections.

It also provides basic data for blocking community transmission and infectious disease prevention activities.

Nam Soong-woo, director of the City Health and Environment Research Institute, said, “To prepare for the local resurgence of COVID-19, overseas inflow, and outbreaks of new and variant infectious diseases due to climate change, we will operate a rapid response laboratory testing system and strive to protect citizens’ health and safety through continuous monitoring.”

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