The results of cold-related illness surveillance for 2013-2017

Park Seong-Woo, Jo Hyun-Jung, Yoo Hyeosoon, Shin Insik
Division of Strategic Planning for Emerging Infectious Diseases, KCDC

Since 2013, during the period from December 1 to February 28, every year, which falls on a spell of cold temperature, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) starts to operate the cold-related illness (CRI) surveillance system with a nationwide network of about 500 hospital emergency rooms (ERs). The aims of system is to monitor the occurrence of patients with illnesses caused by the cold wave, such as hypothermia, frostbite, trench foot or immersion foot, and chilblains. Over the past five years (2013-2017), KCDC’s surveillance system reported 2,271 cases with CRI, and among them, 66 deaths. The most number of CRI events was observed with 971 patients (42.8%) in January and 26 deaths (39.4%) in December. The higher proportions of patients were correlated with these variables: men (72.6%), Gyeonggi-do (18.5%), hypothermia (79.7%), people in their 50s (20.8%) and the roadside (27.7%). The surveillance data showed that the negative relationship between temperature and CRI incidence was epidemiologically linked. Health damage from cold wave could be prevented by following the guidelines for cold wave control. The Division of Strategic Planning for Emerging Infectious Diseases of the KCDC strives to raise public awareness by providing health warnings against CRI every winter.

Keywords: Cold-related illness, Hypothermia, Frostbite, Surveillance system, Cold wave