Yoon-Seok Chung

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | KCDC · Division of Viral Diseases

A real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay that does not require Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) reagents was tested and validated for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the early stages of the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Republic of Kore...

The 17 Provincial Institutes of Health and Environment (PIHEs) in Korea use HIV antibody, antigen, and Western blot assays for confirmatory testing of HIV infection. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has further included p24 antigen neutralization and nucleic acid tests (NATs) since 2015. Our study aimed to investigate the effe...

The South Korean government effectively contained the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak primarily associated with a religious group. We conducted SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing of 66 cases to investigate connections among the initial South Korean cases and the religious group outbreak. We assessed the accuracy of genomic investigatio...

Objectives: An epidemiological investigation was conducted into a hepatitis C virus (HCV) outbreak at an outpatients clinic in Seoul (2011-2012). The aim of the study was to analyze the scale of infection, identify the source of infection, and route of transmission to prevent hepatitis C transmission in the future. Methods: A retrospective study...

Background: Compared to influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus, common human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are relatively understudied due to the mild nature of HCoV infection. Given the lack of local epidemiology data on common HCoVs in Korea, we aimed to describe epidemiological characteristics of common HCoVs. Methods: Respiratory viral test re...

Background: A real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was developed to rapidly diagnose coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Early diagnosis of COVID-19 enables timely treatment and the implementation of public health measures. We validated t...

We identified imported cases of a novel D614A mutation in the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 in the South Korea. SARS-CoV-2 harboring the novel mutation was isolated from returning travelers from Uzbekistan. These results emphasized the possibility that new mutations have emerged in that area.

The WHO Regional Verification Commission certified in 2017 that Korea was the first country in the WHO Western Pacific Region to achieve rubella elimination. A suspected congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) was reported to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August 2017. The mother of a new-born had visited Vietnam during her pregn...

The South Korean government effectively contained the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak primarily associated with the Shincheonji religious group. We conducted SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing of 66 cases to investigate connections among the initial South Korean cases and the Shincheonji outbreak. We assessed the accuracy of genomic in...

The South Korean government effectively contained the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak primarily associated with a religious group. We conducted SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing of 66 cases to investigate connections among the initial South Korean cases and the religious group outbreak. We assessed the accuracy of genomic investigatio...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

External quality assessment (EQA) is essential for ensuring reliable test results, especially when laboratories are using assays authorized for emergency use for newly emerging pathogens. We developed an EQA panel to assess the quality of real-time reverse transcription PCR assays being used in South Korea to detect severe acute respiratory syndrom...

Background: The emergence of influenza viruses resistant to anti-influenza drugs is a threat to global public health. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates the Korea Influenza and Respiratory Viruses Surveillance System (KINRESS) to monitor epidemics of influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) to identify mut...

Although the number of newly diagnosed cases of HIV is decreasing worldwide, those in Korea have been steadily on the rise, especially among adolescents (ages 10–19 years) and young adults (ages 20–29 years). To identify the characteristics in the new diagnosis among these age groups, we analyzed HIV testing sizes and HIV prevalence under the natio...

Objectives: Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a respiratory infection characterized by the main symptoms of pneumonia and fever. It is caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is known to spread via respiratory droplets. We aimed to determine the rate and likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 transm...

Objectives: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has been rapidly spreading worldwide. Although the causal relationship among mutations and the features of SARS-CoV-2 such as rapid transmission, pathogenicity, and tropism, remains unclear, our results of genomic mutations in SAR...

Background: The emergence of influenza viruses resistant to anti-influenza drugs is a threat to public health. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates the Korea Influenza and Respiratory Viruses Surveillance System (KINRESS) to monitor epidemic of influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) to identify mutated infl...

As of February 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak started in China in December 2019 has been spreading in many countries in the world. With the numbers of confirmed cases are increasing, information on the epidemiologic investigation and clinical manifestation have been accumulated. However, data on viral lo...

Objectives: Following reports of patients with unexplained pneumonia at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, China, the causative agent was identified as coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and the 2019 novel coronavirus disease was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. Putative patients with COVID-19 have been identified in South Korea, and attemp...

Population-level phylogenetic patterns reflect both transmission dynamics and genetic changes, which accumulate because of selection or drift. In this study, we determined whether a longitudinally sampled dataset derived from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected individuals over a 14-year period (1999–2012) could shed light on the transmis...

We evaluated genetic variation in Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) imported to South Korea in 2018 using specimens from a patient and isolates from infected Caco-2 cells. The MERS-CoV strain in this study was genetically similar to a strain isolated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2017.

Background: In November 2015, reuse of needles and syringes in conjunction with an increase in cases of HCV at a clinic in Korea was reported and investigated by public health authorities. Patients who received injections at the clinic from the first time this infection control breach may have occurred in 2008 through 2015 when the practice was st...

Epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and chromatin remodeling can control gene expression by regulating gene transcription. DNA methylation is one of the frequent epigenetic events that play important roles in cancer development. Cancer cells can gain significant resistance to anticancer drugs and escape programmed c...

본 발명은 C형 간염 바이러스(HCV)의 유전자형을 검사하는 방법에 관한 것으로, 보다 자세하게는 C형 간염 바이러스 Core-E2 유전자 증폭용 프라이머를 이용하여 해당 유전자를 증폭 및 염기서열을 분석하여 C형 간염 바이러스(HCV)의 유전자형을 검사하는 방법에 관한 것이다. 또한, 국내 C형 간염 환자군으로부터 분석된 HCV Core-E2 유전자의 염기서열을 이용한 C형 간염 바이러스 감염 여부 검출을 위한 진단키트 및 마커용 조성물에 관한 것이다.

Lymphoid tissue is a key reservoir established by HIV-1 during acute infection. It is a site associated with viral production, storage of viral particles in immune complexes, and viral persistence. Although combinations of antiretroviral drugs usually suppress viral replication and reduce viral RNA to undetectable levels in blood, it is unclear whe...

Objective: Theoretical predicting cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes are an important tool in vaccine design and CTL therapy for enhancing our understanding of the cellular immune system. We would like to identify available CTL epitopes against HIV-1 Korean clade B. CTL activity was assessed in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cell...

Cytokines/chemokines play key roles in modulating disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Although it is known that early HIV-1 infection is associated with increased production of proinflammatory cytokines, the relationship between cytokine levels and HIV-1 pathogenesis is not clear. The concentrations of 18 cytokines/...

Human APOBEC3 proteins are cytidine deaminases that contribute broadly to innate immunity through the control of exogenous retrovirus replication and endogenous retroelement retrotransposition. As an intrinsic antiretroviral defense mechanism, APOBEC3 proteins induce extensive guanosine-to-adenosine (G-to-A) mutagenesis and inhibit synthesis of nas...

HIV-1 gp41 is an envelope protein that plays an essential role in virus entry. The mutation of gp41 affects HIV-1 entry and susceptibility to the fusion inhibitor T-20. Therefore, we analyzed the natural polymorphism of gp41 of 163 HIV-1 isolates from T-20-naïve Koreans infected with HIV-1. This study of gp41 polymorphisms showed that insertions in...

In 2005, human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) was isolated and identified from a 71-year-old man with pneumonia in Hong Kong. To identify and classify genotypes of HCoV-HKU1 in Korea, a sensitive, specific, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed and analyzed the sequences of HCoV-HKU1 isolated in Korea. A total...

Transmission of influenza (H5N1) virus from birds to humans is a serious public health threat. In South Korea, serologic investigation among 2,512 poultry workers exposed during December 2003-March 2004 to poultry with confirmed or suspected influenza (H5N1) virus infection found antibodies in 9. Frequency of bird-to-human transmission was low.

From 2002 through 2006, Republic of Korea conducted extensive measles elimination activities and declared elimination in 2006. An outbreak of measles involving 180 confirmed cases occurred during 2007. An outbreak investigation was performed and enhanced surveillance was implemented. Detailed case investigations and laboratory testing included sero...

22) 출원일자 2009년06월02일 심사청구일자 2009년06월02일 (71) 출원인 대한민국(관리부서 질병관리본부장) 충청북도 청원군 강외면 연제리 643 오송생명과학 단지보건의료행정타운 (72) 발명자 강춘 서울특별시 서초구 반포동 32-8 삼호가든 3차 F동 105호 김기순 서울특별시 양천구 목3동 목동롯데캐슬위너아파트 105-302 (뒷면에 계속) (74) 대리인 남상선 전체 청구항 수 : 총 4 항 (54) 사람 코로나 바이러스(ＨＣｏＶ)-ＨＫＵ１의 절대 정량을 위한 실시간 ＰＣＲ 분석 방법 (57) 요 약 본 발명은 사람 코로나 바이러스(HCoV)-HKU1 검출을 위한 실시간 PCR 방법에 관한 것으로, P...

To assess the genomic characteristics of human adenoviruses (HAdVs) that caused small-scale epidemics in Korea and compare sequence analysis and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Two hundred sixty-two throat swabs were collected from geographically distinct two cohabitation facilities during outbreaks in August 2005 and February-May...

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a parvovirus that has been recently detected in patients with respiratory illness. We developed a sensitive, specific, and quantitative real-time PCR assay based on the TaqMan method for HBoV detection and quantification in respiratory specimens. Three individual real-time PCR assays were designed to amplify HBoV NS1, NP-1...

This investigation was to perform the epidemiological surveillance and genetic analysis on respiratory viral agents from children with acute respiratory infections in Gwangju.

Adenovirus is a major cause of acute respiratory disease (ARD) in military recruits. When South Korean military recruits with ARD were surveyed, adenovirus was identified in 122 (61.0%) of the 200 recruits studied. Moreover, all cases of ARD involving adenovirus were caused by serotype 7.

The nucleocapsid (N) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is involved in the pathological reaction to SARS and is a key antigen for the development of a sensitive diagnostic assay. However, the antigenic properties of this N protein are largely unknown. To facilitate the studies on the function and antigenicity of the...

The adenovirus family contains 51 human serotypes, and most human adenoviruses cause widespread respiratory tract infections. Adenovirus infections can result in severe complications in some cases, such as in adenovirus type 11 infection in immunocompromised patients. However, effective treatment methods for adenovirus infections are currently unav...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus nucleocapsid (SARS-CoV N) protein has been found to be important to the processes related to viral pathogenesis, such as virus replication, interference of the cell process and modulation of host immune response; detection of the antigen has been used for the early diagnosis of infection. We have used r...

Human metapneumovirus(hMPV) is a respiratory viral pathogen that causes a wide spectrum of illnesses, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe bronchiolitis. The virus has been identified world widely, but so far it has not been published in Korea.

Rapid and reliable diagnosis of measles is important to establish an appropriate therapy and to monitor the epidemic. However, classical ELISA methods using purified virus or virus-infected cells as antigens are not only difficult to determine optimal condition for diagnosis but also highly expensive to establish routine and appropriate diagnostic...

We have isolated Human enterovirus 71 (EV71) from stool and CSF samples taken from patients with acute flaccid paralysis, herpangina, or hand, foot and mouth disease in 2000. Both the cell culture-neutralization test and RT-PCR were used to detect enteroviruses. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD), HEP2c, and BGM cells were used for the isolation of viruses, and...

A common epitope region of enteroviruses was identified by sequence-independent single-primer amplification (SISPA), followed by immunoscreening of 11 cDNA libraries from two Korean enterovirus isolates (echoviruses 7 and 30) and a coxsackievirus B3 (ATCC-VR 30). The putative common epitope region was localized in the N terminus of VP1 when the dis...

We have evaluated PCR-RFLP as a practical method for rapid typing of enteroviruses causing aseptic meningitis in Korea. Through blind examination of 80 clinical isolates from patients with aseptic meningitis, we have compared the results of conventional serotyping with PCR-RFLP based genotyping, which was developed for this study. Among the 80 case...