Announcement of 2025 Major Business Promotion Plan
Focused Response and Management of New and Endemic Infectious Diseases
Strengthening Chronic Disease and Health Threat Management Systems to Prepare for an Aging Society
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) will strengthen the chronic disease management system this year to proactively prepare for new infectious diseases and respond to the super-aged society.
On the 21st, the KDCA announced this plan during the presentation of its major business promotion plan for 2025 at the Osong Bio-Science Complex in Cheongju, Chungbuk. Director Ji Young-mi of the KDCA said, "Based on the experience of COVID-19, we will operate the organization more efficiently," adding, "With the vision of 'Protecting public health in daily life and being a KDCA that works with the people,' we will promote policies that the public can more tangibly feel in 2025."
The announcement focused on protecting the public from new and endemic infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and non-communicable health threats, as well as leading domestic and international public health policies and health care research cooperation networks. To this end, the KDCA plans to implement five core tasks and 21 detailed tasks.
Jiyeongmi, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, is explaining the agency's key work plans for 2025 at Osong Bio Science Complex in Cheongju, Chungbuk, on the 21st. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
◆ Proactive Preparation and Response to New Infectious Diseases = The KDCA will advance infectious disease surveillance and prediction this year. First, it will expand community wastewater surveillance for early detection of infectious disease outbreaks. The existing hospital- and patient-centered surveillance system will also be supplemented. A pilot operation of a Korean-style infectious disease prediction hub (HUB), involving experts from various fields including artificial intelligence, is also planned.
The agency will also initiate a reform of the quarantine system. Paperless quarantine based on the Q-CODE system will be expanded to five locations, and respiratory infectious disease testing for overseas travelers will be piloted at two airport quarantine stations. Additionally, to proactively secure private diagnostic capabilities that can be mobilized during crises, the number of excellent infectious disease pathogen verification institutions will be increased, and the development of diagnostic reagents for unknown infectious diseases and joint public-private performance evaluations will be expanded.
Efforts will be made to secure medical response and stockpiling capacity and quarantine personnel in advance. The infectious disease medical response infrastructure, including plans for negative pressure beds, will be organized to strengthen a constant medical response system. Domestically produced anthrax vaccines will also be stockpiled for rapid biological terrorism response. Infectious disease education will be mandatory for all public officials starting this year.
The overall societal infectious disease preparedness system will be strengthened. Simulated drills will be conducted across various sectors to prepare for new infectious diseases and diverse biological terrorism. The plan is to enhance the capacity to respond to infectious disease pandemics in social and economic sectors. To prevent infodemics such as fake news during infectious disease crises, the KDCA will collaborate with the media and individual social network service (SNS) operators. A crisis communication system will be established, and related agencies will be trained on standard operating procedures for crisis communication.
◆ Refinement of Endemic Infectious Disease Management and Eradication Strategies = A life-cycle national immunization roadmap will also be developed. The institutional foundation for national immunization will be established through the formulation of a five-year comprehensive national immunization plan and the promotion of the enactment of the "Immunization Management Act" (tentative name). The national immunization introduction and effectiveness evaluation system will be reorganized to expand immunization support according to policy demand.
Proactive responses to respiratory infectious disease outbreaks are planned. In particular, the target for preventive antibiotic treatment for pertussis will be expanded to include infants and third-trimester pregnant women. Management of respiratory infectious diseases will be strengthened by revising comprehensive clinical guidelines for Mycoplasma pneumoniae, among others.
Customized eradication strategies for endemic infectious diseases will also be pursued. First, to facilitate early detection and follow-up management of hepatitis C, antibody testing for hepatitis C and confirmatory testing fees for antibody-positive individuals will be supported within the 56-year-old national health checkup. Clinical guidelines will be distributed to primary care institutions to support treatment after screening. Additionally, active surveillance and patient management in malaria risk areas will be strengthened, tuberculosis screening and management for elderly living alone and homeless individuals will be enhanced, and support for HIV PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medication costs for vulnerable groups will be expanded.
A safe environment from healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance will be created. To strengthen infection control capabilities in medical institutions, an integrated education platform and education roadmap will be developed. The CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae) reduction strategy will be expanded from eight to 30 medical institutions. Reflecting the global response trend including antibiotic resistance awareness improvement, the "3rd Antibiotic Resistance Management Plan (draft)" will also be prepared.
Jiyeongmi, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, is answering questions from the press at the '2025 Major Work Plan Announcement' of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency held on the 21st at Osong Bio Science Complex in Cheongju, Chungbuk. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
◆ Strengthening Chronic Disease and Health Threat Management Systems to Respond to a Super-Aged Society = The chronic disease management system will also be restructured. Strategies will be developed according to frailty stages and residential types to prevent and delay frailty. The scope of diseases managed by hypertension and diabetes registration education centers will be expanded to include dyslipidemia, establishing a pilot education and management system for patients with complex chronic diseases. The number of atopy and asthma safe schools will be increased, and education and counseling for elderly asthma patients will be provided to strengthen education and management of allergic diseases by target group.
The national health survey will also be advanced. A follow-up survey based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey will be introduced, and community health survey indicators will be refined to meet policy demands. This will increase the policy utilization of national health survey results and actively introduce non-face-to-face and mixed surveys to improve survey convenience.
Medical expense and diagnostic support for rare diseases will also be expanded. To support and manage rare diseases based on evidence, the registration statistics will be fully implemented in April, and a survey on unmet medical use and diagnostic status will be conducted.
Infrastructure for injury and health prevention management will be solidified. According to the "Injury Prevention and Management Act," which will be enforced on the 24th, the first comprehensive plan will be established, and a national promotion system including a central injury management center will be set up. Additionally, a public system that integrates and provides information on non-communicable health risk factors is also being prepared for launch.
A proactive climate health assessment and management system will be established. In preparation for the second climate health impact assessment, evaluation indicators will be expanded, and data on climate-vulnerable groups will be secured to establish an evaluation foundation. Meanwhile, pilot provision of heat illness risk grades by city and province will be offered to proactively respond to summer heatwaves.
◆ Leading Infectious Disease and Health Care Research to Prepare for Future Health Threats = Efforts will be made to rapidly develop vaccines and therapeutics. Nonclinical and phase 1 clinical studies of mRNA vaccine technology will be swiftly promoted, and a roadmap for self-sufficiency of essential national immunization vaccines will be established. To develop therapeutic antibodies, various antibody development platforms for future infectious diseases such as MERS, SFTS (Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome), and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) will be secured, and the therapeutic efficacy evaluation system for rapid entry into (non)clinical trials will be expanded.
Chronic disease research will be accelerated through problem-solving in clinical settings. In response to the super-aged society, aging research will be expanded from basic research to clinical translation, behavioral medicine interventions, and technology demonstration research. Research on sex differences in medicine, including gestational diabetes cohorts and optimization of medical technology according to gender differences, will also be initiated.
Health care data openness will be expanded. To build a national integrated bio-big data system, 210,000 high-quality human-derived samples will be collected this year, and human resource storage and management facilities will be expanded. Additionally, to promote data registration, data donation in the health care research field will be made mandatory to provide research data centered on demanders.
Support and management for high-risk health care research will also be strengthened. This year, additional support will be provided for two stem cell therapy product manufacturing projects, supporting advanced regenerative medicine research. To ensure safe health care research, management and supervision of advanced regenerative medicine research will be strengthened for hospital- and clinic-level institutions and treatment-performing institutions.
◆ Leading Global Health Security and Public Health = The KDCA will participate in the WHO Joint External Evaluation of the International Health Regulations. The plan is to assess national crisis response capabilities and establish a pandemic preparedness system at the level of the revised WHO International Health Regulations from last year.
Efforts will also be made to solidify official development assistance (ODA) projects and strengthen international cooperative research. First, ODA projects will be solidified to support demand-based technology by linking ODA strategy formulation and project-based international joint research. International cooperative research will be promoted centered on overseas research bases such as the Philippine National Institute of Tropical Medicine.
The global workforce training program centered on the Global Health Security (GHS) Coordination Office and the WHO collaboration center for pandemic preparedness and response will also be fully operated. Through this, pandemic response capabilities will be enhanced, and global infectious disease agenda cooperation will be expanded by hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Health Working Group meeting and more.
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