[Analysis of the Public Health Weekly Report Papers Released during Public Health Crises]

Since the launch of the Public Health Weekly Report in 2008, domestic and international public health crises have occurred. The aim of this paper was to identify the role of Public Health Weekely Report by analyzing articles published during public health crises. Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 spread in 2009 a total of 25 related articles were published and mainly reported on overseas and domestic infection cases. In 2014, when the Ebola virus disease was declared an international public health crisis, one article related to Ebola vaccine development was published. In 2015, when the first imported case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was reported in the Republic of Korea (ROK), no articles were published during the MERS cluster outbreak. In 2016, when patients with Zika virus infection disease were reported in ROK, four articles related to quarantine measures and case reports were published. During the course of the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic period (2020-2023), 150 articles were published. In the early stage, the main topics of related articles were COVID-19 outbreak trends and epidemiological investigation results. Subsequently, detailed reports on vaccination, adverse reactions, variants, and cluster outbreaks emerged. We confirmed that by responding to such public health crises, ROK's quarantine system has developed with a focus on subdivided and sophisticated investigation, surveillance, and analysis competencies. The Public Health Weekly Report will help safeguard public health by promptly providing timely information on infectious diseases, including their clinical, epidemiological, and microbiological characteristics, based on surveillance, epidemiological investigations, surveys, and laboratory research during public health crises.