Busan City Selected as an Excellent Local Government in Infectious Disease Management Evaluation, Awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare Commendation

Award Ceremony at the '2024 Infectious Disease Management Conference' Hosted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on the 21st

Mayor Park Hyung-jun: "Strengthening Infectious Disease Response Capabilities for a Safe and Healthy City Busan"

Busan City was selected as an excellent local government in the ‘2024 Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Evaluation’ conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and received a commendation from the Minister of Health and Welfare.

Busan City was selected as an excellent local government in infectious disease management evaluation. Photo by Busan City

Every year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency evaluates infectious disease prevention and management projects and policies of 17 metropolitan local governments nationwide based on a total of 15 key evaluation indicators across four areas: ▲strengthening infectious disease crisis response capabilities ▲infectious disease prevention and management ▲organization composition and operation ▲best practices, to enhance the infectious disease response capacity of local communities.

In this year’s evaluation, Busan City was selected as one of the top three excellent local governments.

The award ceremony was held on the 21st at the ‘Inspire Resort’ in Incheon during the ‘2024 Infectious Disease Management Conference.’

In this evaluation, the city received high marks in ▲training for crisis management response to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases ▲completion rate of local government infectious disease response education ▲compliance rate with the statutory infectious disease reporting deadline ▲operation of medical-related sentinel surveillance consultative bodies ▲organization composition and operation of infectious disease management ▲and best practice indicators.

To strengthen the practical capabilities of infectious disease response personnel in the field, the city conducted simulated crisis management drills for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. It also checked the crisis management system by conducting scenario-based execution and discussion-based drills and training on donning and doffing protective gear for waterborne and foodborne infectious diseases, whose incidence is increasing due to changes in dietary habits.

Furthermore, the city promoted and encouraged medical institutions to report suspected infectious disease patients within the legal deadline, enabling timely responses to major infectious diseases such as measles and pertussis. It also regularly and ad hoc operated consultative bodies by field, such as sentinel surveillance medical institutions and infectious disease response medical consultative bodies, to strengthen cooperation systems among related organizations.

In particular, following the global COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of infectious disease response has increased. The city secured epidemiological investigators and reserve quarantine personnel, organized epidemiological investigation teams at the city, district, and county levels, and established the nation’s first facility infection control team to provide focused and proactive infection management for facilities densely populated by vulnerable groups.

Going forward, the city plans to further advance the system for continuous infectious disease prevention and management and future infectious disease outbreak preparedness, and to enhance expertise and field applicability by conducting customized education and training for infectious disease response personnel.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “This award is the result of blocking infectious diseases and responding proactively through constant communication with the city, districts and counties, medical institutions, and related organizations in the local community,” adding, “Our city will continue to strengthen infectious disease response capabilities to create a ‘safe and healthy city Busan free from infectious diseases.’”