On April 23, 2020, the Korean Red Cross learned that Mr. A, who donated blood while serving in the military, was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV ), and immediately reported the infection to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. HIV is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome ( AIDS ).
In accordance with the AIDS Prevention Act, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency should have notified the local public health center and county authorities of the infection and arranged for Mr. A to undergo an epidemiological investigation.
However, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency was not aware of the omission of infection notification.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency notified the public health center of Mr. A’s infection only after a request for data from the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young-joo, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, on August 24, a whopping 1,218 days later.
Ultimately, it is presumed that Mr. A continued his military service until his discharge without knowing that he was infected with HIV due to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s negligence.
In the worst case, the possibility that HIV may have spread to other soldiers cannot be ruled out.
Despite this situation, when asked about the reason for the delay in notification, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency simply answered, “There was a mistake by the person in charge.”
According to data received by Rep. Kim Young-joo’s office from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, over the past five years (2018-2022), there were a total of 53 cases of ‘delayed notification’ to local government public health centers for more than 24 hours after receiving reports of HIV infection from the Red Cross. lost.
Among these, there were 2 cases each for ‘more than 1 year’ and ‘more than 6 months to less than 1 year’.
Also, 5 cases were ‘1 month to less than 6 months’, 2 cases were ‘3 weeks to less than 1 month’, 3 cases were ‘2 weeks to less than 3 weeks’, 7 cases were ‘1 week to less than 2 weeks’, ‘ 32 cases were investigated for ‘ more than 1 day to less than 1 week’ respectively.
The reason why something so absurd happens is because there is a hole in the health authorities’ HIV- infected management system.
In accordance with the AIDS Prevention Act, the Red메이저사이트 Cross must report to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency system within 24 hours if blood received through blood donation is confirmed to be infected with HIV .
After a report is received, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is supposed to notify the public health center in the jurisdiction of the address of the positive case based on the infected person’s personal information and request an epidemiological investigation.
The problem is that only the blood test number is required on the HIV infection report form.
In order to notify the positive case, the person in charge of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency must make a direct phone call with the person in charge of the Red Cross in order to obtain personal information such as name, address, date of birth, and contact information of the infected person.
In addition, unlike the 24-hour time limit for reporting infection, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency does not stipulate a statutory time limit when notifying infection.
It is pointed out that due to these loopholes in the system, there is a delay between an infected person being notified of infection and an epidemiological investigation being conducted, and even the infection notification itself is easily missed due to an individual error by a Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official.
Representative Kim Young-joo said, “ As people infected with HIV are highly likely to develop AIDS, we must promptly notify them and ensure that they receive appropriate treatment, and we must prevent the problem of them spreading the virus to others due to not being aware of their infection at an early stage.” He added, “The overall HIV management system must be established . “There is a need for fundamental improvement,” he emphasized.
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