Government ramping up efforts to combat respiratory disease 'twindemic'

Social Affairs

Published: 19 Dec. 2023, 14:30

Government ramping up efforts to combat respiratory disease 'twindemic'

Jee Young-mee, the commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, speaks during the first intergovernmental agencies’ meeting regarding infectious respiratory diseases at the agency headquarters in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, on Monday noon. [YONHAP]

The government is gearing up to roll out public health measures to combat the “twindemic” of mycoplasma pneumonia and influenza.

“This year’s twindemic is atypical and unprecedented as there was no spread of respiratory diseases during the Covid-19 pandemic era when quarantine measures, such as social distancing and mask-wearing, were in place,” Jee Young-mee, the commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said at the first intergovernmental agencies’ meeting regarding the respiratory infectious disease on Monday.

“The influenza cases have reached a five-year peak.”

She urged authorities to remain alert and prepared, citing rising numbers of critically ill and hospitalized patients.

According to the KDCA, the influenza started to surge last September when Covid-19-related quarantine measures were eased.

An information poster about influenza vaccine is attached on a door at pediatric clinic in Seoul on Dec. 7. [NEWS1]

On average, 61.3 out of 1,000 outpatients were reported to have influenza-like symptoms in the second week of December, the highest ratio in the last five years.

The ratio soars to 133.4 out of 1,000 patients for patients aged 13 to 18, twenty times higher than the typical ratio of 6.5 out of 1,000.

“Government agencies plan to share outbreak information regularly,” Jee said. “They will also monitor the supply of medications, track the hospitals’ capacity for children, expand the usage scope of antibiotics and establish medical treatment guidelines.”

She said the agency will also accommodate experts and professionals’ voices from the field as much as possible.

Jee also advised older adults and other high-risk individuals to get vaccinated proactively. She also encouraged people to practice personal hygiene.

To curb the further spread of respiratory diseases nationwide, the agency formed an interagency response team with the Welfare Ministry, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Education Ministry on Dec. 8.

Occupational associations of doctors and pharmacists advise the team chaired by the KDCA’s head.

BY JUNG SI-NAE [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]