Effect of Information Disclosure Policy on Control of Infectious Disease: MERS-CoV Outbreak in South Korea

Effect of Information Disclosure Policy on Control of Infectious Disease: MERS-CoV Outbreak in South Korea

Young Dae Kwon, Yejin Lee, Ki-Bong Yoo, Jin-Won Noh, Jin Hyuk Hong, Kisoo Park

This study examined the effect of disclosing a list of hospitals with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) patients on the number of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV cases in South Korea. MERS-CoV data from 20 May 2015 to 5 July 2015 were from the Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare website and analyzed using segmented linear autoregressive error models for interrupted time series. This study showed that the number of laboratory-confirmed cases was increased by 9.632 on 5 June (p < 0.001). However, this number was significantly decreased following disclosure of a list of hospitals with MERS-CoV cases (Estimate = −0.699; p < 0.001). Disclosing the list of hospitals exposed to MERS-CoV was critical to the prevention of further infection. It reduced the number of confirmed MERS-CoV cases. Thus, providing accurate and timely information is a key to critical care response.

2020

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS-CoV, infectious disease, Prevention, information disclosure policy

10.3390/ijerph17010305

Epidemiology and Health

Korean Society of Epidemiology

Medicine