We aimed to identify the differences in personal disaster preparedness and disaster risk perception among child care and preschool teachers in South Korea by using demographic characteristics and disaster-related questions.

A cross-sectional self-reporting questionnaire was administered from February to October 2014.

Of all the participants, 68.1% had received disaster preparedness education and training on 2 or more occasions per year; 13.2% had received no education or training. Personal disaster preparedness differed significantly by marital status (P<0.05), the number of disaster education and training sessions attended (P<0.05), and having purchased home insurance (P<0.001). Disaster risk perception differed significantly by children’s age group under a teacher’s care (P<0.05). The topic on which child care teachers wanted more training was “fractures and bleeding emergency care” (53.9%). The most probable disaster was considered to be a typhoon (66.0%).

Disaster preparedness is important for both young children and their teachers. Field-based teacher disaster preparedness education and training should be provided so that they can respond effectively to disaster occurrence regardless of type, time, or location. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018; 12: 321–328)

To control an outbreak of Shewanella algae and S. putrefaciens infections by identifying the risk factors for infection and transmission.

Matched case-control study.

A university-affiliated tertiary acute care hospital in Seoul, Republic of Korea, with approximately 1,600 beds.

From June 20, 2003, to January 16, 2004, a total of 31 case patients with Shewanella colonization or infection and 62 control patients were enrolled in the study.

Requirement to use single-use measuring cups and standard precautions (including hand washing before and after patient care and use of gloves).

S. algae or S. putrefaciens was isolated from blood, for 9 (29.0%) of 31 patients who acquired one of the organisms; from bile, for 8 (25.8%), and from ascitic fluid, for 8 (25.8%). The attack rate of this outbreak was 5.8% (31 patients infected or colonized, of 534 potentially exposed on ward A) and the pathogenicity of the two species together was 77.4% (24 patients infected, of 31 who acquired the pathogens). The estimated incubation period for Shewanella acquisition was 3–49 days. Using logistic analysis, we identified the following risk factors: presence of external drainage catheters in the hepatobiliary system (odds ratio [OR], 20; P < .001), presence of hepatobiliary disease (OR, 6.4; P < .001), admission to the emergency department of the hospital (OR, 2.9; P = .039), wound classification of “contaminated” or “dirty or infected” (OR, 16.5; P = .012), an American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 3 or higher (OR, 8.0; P = .006), duration of stay in ward A (OR, 1.1; P < .001), and, for women, an age of 60–69 years (OR, 13.3; P = .028). A Shewanella isolate was recovered from the surface of a shared measuring cup, and 12 isolates of S. algae showed the same pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern.

This Shewanella outbreak had a single-source origin and spread by contact transmission via a contaminated measuring cup. Shewanella species are emerging as potentially serious human pathogens in hospitals and could be included in hospital infection surveillance systems.

To develop new evaluation indices of infection control and to use them to evaluate Korean infection surveillance and control programs (ISCPs).

We performed a questionnaire-based survey to 164 acute care general hospitals throughout the Republic of Korea that had more than 300 beds. Study methods were based completely on those of the Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC). Four SENIC indices (hospital epidemiologist index, infection control nurse index, surveillance index, and control index) and 4 newly developed indices (healthcare worker index, quality improvement index, resource index, and hand hygiene facilities index) were used to evaluate Korean ISCPs. Data were collected by questionnaire from June 17 to October 11, 2003.

One hundred sixty-four general hospitals with more than 300 beds in the Republic of Korea.

Personnel from 85 general hospitals responded to the study questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the evaluation indices were statistically significant (P<.05). The 8 evaluation indices were categorized into 2 factor groups: personnel factors (hospital epidemiologist index and infection control nurse index) and activity factors (the remaining 6 indices). Korean ISCPs showed a major weakness in surveillance. The scores for the newly developed evaluation indices were better than those for the SENIC evaluation indices. However, most Korean hospitals were estimated to have had only slight reductions in nosocomial infection rates. The evaluation indices were influenced significantly by the number of beds in the hospital, whether the hospital was located in the Seoul-Gyonggi region, the presence of full-time infection control nurses at the hospital, the education level of the infection control nurses, and the nurses' experience in infection control (P<.05).

The reliability and validity of the SENIC evaluation indices and the newly developed evaluation indices were satisfactory in evaluating Korean ISCPs. However, surveillance should be improved to increase the efficacy of Korean ISCPs.