Objectives The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency promotes vaccination by regularly providing information on its benefits for reducing the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to analyze the number of averted severe COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related deaths by age group and quantify the impact of Republic of Korea’s nationwide vaccination campaign.
Methods We analyzed an integrated database from the beginning of the vaccination campaign on February 26, 2021 to October 15, 2022. We estimated the cumulative number of severe cases and COVID-19-related deaths over time by comparing observed and estimated cases among unvaccinated and vaccinated groups using statistical modeling. We compared daily age-adjusted rates of severe cases and deaths in the unvaccinated group to those in the vaccinated group and calculated the susceptible population and proportion of vaccinated people by age.
Results There were 23,793 severe cases and 25,441 deaths related to COVID-19. We estimated that 119,579 (95% confidence interval [CI], 118,901–120,257) severe COVID-19 cases and 137,636 (95% CI, 136,909–138,363) COVID-19-related deaths would have occurred if vaccination had not been performed. Therefore, 95,786 (95% CI, 94,659–96,913) severe cases and 112,195 (95% CI, 110,870–113,520) deaths were prevented as a result of the vaccination campaign.
Conclusion We found that, if the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign had not been implemented, the number of severe cases and deaths would have been at least 4 times higher. These findings suggest that Republic of Korea’s nationwide vaccination campaign reduced the number of severe cases and COVID-19 deaths.
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Assessing the determinants of influenza and COVID-19 vaccine co-administration decisions in the elderly Seunghyun Lewis Kwon, So-Yeon Kim, Minju Song, Hyung-Min Lee, Seon-Hwa Ban, Mi-Soon Lee, Hyesun Jeong Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
코로나바이러스감염증-19 대조 백신 및 연구용 백신 지원 수봉 채, 미미소 이, 은영 조, 준구 박 Public Health Weekly Report.2024; 17(32): 1378. CrossRef
Comparative Effectiveness of COVID-19 Bivalent Versus Monovalent mRNA Vaccines in the Early Stage of Bivalent Vaccination in Korea: October 2022 to January 2023 Ryu Kyung Kim, Young June Choe, Eun Jung Jang, Chungman Chae, Ji Hae Hwang, Kil Hun Lee, Ji Ae Shim, Geun-Yong Kwon, Jae Young Lee, Young-Joon Park, Sang Won Lee, Donghyok Kwon Journal of Korean Medical Science.2023;[Epub] CrossRef
Objectives We aimed to estimate the impact of the national hepatitis B immunization program on the incidence of acute hepatitis B infection among adolescents in South Korea.
Methods We estimated the counterfactual incidence rate of reported acute hepatitis B among adolescents from 2016 to 2020 compared to the assumption that the national hepatitis B immunization program for children had not been implemented since 1995. The impact of the national hepatitis B immunization program for adolescents was measured by estimating the absolute risk reduction and averted acute hepatitis B infections among adolescents from 2016 to 2020 attributed to the national immunization program.
Results The relative risk reduction of acute hepatitis B among adolescents was estimated to be 83.5% after implementing the national hepatitis B immunization program. The incidence rate of reported acute hepatitis B infections among adolescents decreased from 0.39 to 0.06 per 100,000 person-years, and 43 acute hepatitis B infections, including 17 symptomatic cases, were averted annually from 2016 to 2020 by the national hepatitis B immunization program.
Conclusion The national hepatitis B immunization program for children was effective in preventing acute hepatitis B infection among adolescents in South Korea.
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Modeling HBV transmission dynamics in Indonesia (2024–2030) using a SIVRM model: Evaluating optimal control strategies for elimination by 2030 Hashem S. Arkok, Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, Dipo Aldila, Nurhayati Adnan Prihartono, Yury E Khudyakov PLOS One.2026; 21(2): e0341120. CrossRef
Seroprotection following hepatitis B vaccination in health care workers at a dental teaching hospital in south India Shobha Rodrigues, Jyoti Suvarna, Shivani Suvarna, Srikant Natarajan, Sandipan Mukherjee, Sowmya Narayan, Shivani Shetty Brazilian Journal of Oral Sciences.2026; 25: e266219. CrossRef
Reprogramming cancer immunity with next-generation combination therapies Nikolaos C. Kyriakidis, Carolina E. Echeverría, Jhommara Bautista, Sebastián Rivera-Orellana, María José Ramos-Medina, Camila Salazar-Santoliva, Juan S. Izquierdo-Condoy, Esteban Ortiz-Prado, Santiago Guerrero, Andrés López-Cortés Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
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