On the 15th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced that it will hold the "Inter-Ministerial Waterborne and Foodborne Virus Council Meeting" in Osong, Chungbuk.
The Inter-Ministerial Waterborne and Foodborne Virus Council is a government agency council responsible for laboratory testing and analysis of food poisoning. Five central government agencies, including the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, participate to maintain a joint response cooperation system for standardizing laboratory testing and analysis methods and for identifying causes and preventing the spread in case of outbreaks of group patients.
The council meeting will focus on discussing information exchange plans such as the progress in establishing testing and analysis methods for identifying infection sources in outbreaks caused by waterborne and foodborne viruses, including norovirus.
So far, efforts have been made to standardize norovirus genetic detection testing methods, redefine analysis criteria for genotype analysis, and conduct joint testing and analysis of newly developed test methods.
Since 2019, at the inter-ministerial level, testing methods that can be jointly used to trace infection sources in outbreaks of group diarrhea patients caused by water contamination have been established.
At this meeting, each ministry will share this year's project performance and future plans, and exchange opinions on the status of establishing a "virus testing method for small water samples" to identify infection sources in case of group patient outbreaks.
Jiyoungmi, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, stated, "Through this regular meeting, we hope to strengthen the continuous cooperation system of the Waterborne and Foodborne Virus Council and further enhance the laboratory response system in preparation for group patient outbreaks."
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