A survey of cold-related illness surveillance, 2016-2017 season

Park Seong-Woo, Baek Soo-Jin, Jo Hyun-Jung, Shin Na-Ri, Lee Hee-Il, Lee Sang-Won
Division of Strategic Planning for Emerging Infectious Diseases, KCDC

From December 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) operated the cold-related illness (CRI) surveillance system to monitor hypothermia, frostbite, trench foot or immersion foot, and chilblains due to the cold wave using a nationwide network of 529 hospitals. During the above duration, 441 cases of cold-related illness, and 4 deaths were reported to the KCDC. The reports showed the following characteristics of patients with CRI. With respect to gender and age, the number of male patients (304, 74.3%) were three times higher than that of female patients (137, 31.1%) and the highest frequency of CRI occurred in those aged 60-69 years (88, 20.0%), showing increasing incidence in older aged people. By time, the number of patients with CRI increased to 124 cases in January 15-28 at the peak. By location, 77 cases from Gyonggi, 44 cases from Gyeungbuk were reported in descending order. Health damage from the cold wave could be prevented by following the guidelines for cold wave control. In order to minimize the incidence of CRI, the Division of Strategic Planning for Emerging Infectious Diseases of KCDC is striving to raise public awareness to provide health warnings against CRI every winter.

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