Malaria is a parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium species. Most of the imported malaria in Korea are due to Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum, and Plasmodium ovale infections are very rare. Here, we report a case of a 24-year-old American woman who acquired P. ovale while staying in Ghana, West Africa for 5 months in 2010. The patient was diagnosed with P. ovale malaria based on a Wright-Giemsa stained peripheral blood smear, Plasmodium genus-specific real-time PCR, Plasmodium species-specific nested PCR, and sequencing targeting 18S rRNA gene. The strain identified had a very long incubation period of 19-24 months. Blood donors who have malaria with a very long incubation period could be a potential danger for propagating malaria. Therefore, we should identify imported P. ovale infections not only by morphological findings but also by molecular methods for preventing propagation and appropriate treatment.

As of 25 July 2021, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,422 new COVID-19 cases, 188,848 total cases, and 2.073 total deaths (1.10% fatality rates). Since the first SARS-CoV-2 case was reported, efforts to find a treatment and vaccine against COVID-19 have been widespread. Four vaccines are on the WHO’s emergency use listing and are approved of their usage; BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, AZD1222, and Ad26.COV2.S. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 need at least 14 days to achieve effectiveness. Thus, people should abide by prevention and control measures, including wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. However, a lot of new cases were reported after vaccinations, as many people did not follow the prevention control measures before the end of the 14 days period. There is no doubt we need to break free from mask mandates. But let us not decide the timing in haste. Even if the mask mandates are eased, they should be changed depending on the number of reported cases, vaccinations, as well as prevention and control measures on how circumstances are changing under the influence of mutant coronavirus.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of social support on type 2 diabetes by classifying it into diabetes and impaired fasting blood sugar, a pre-diabetic state. Subjects of this study were 22,846 adults aged 30 years or above who agreed and registered to participate in the "Korean Health Examine Cohort (KOEX)" study that simultaneously collects questionnaires and biological samples at 8 university hospitals around the nation. Normal fasting blood sugar was defined as below 100 mg/dL, and impaired fasting blood sugar was defined as 100~125 mg/dL. Diagnosis of diabetes was defined as fasting blood sugar of 126 mg/dL or above, diagnosis by a doctor, or medication of insulin or oral hypoglycemic agent. Social support groups were divided into 4 groups, and Group 1 (G1) had high positive support and low negative support. This is the reference group with the highest social support. During multivariate analysis, female group (G3) that had high positive support and high negative support showed prevalence of impaired fasting blood sugar 1.19 times higher (95% CI = 1.02~1.41) than G1. As this study confirmed that social support increases fasting blood sugar of women after correction for socioeconomic status, health behavior, and biological and medical variables, it implies the importance of social relations such as social support in addition to management of personal risk factors for prevention of type 2 diabetes.Key Words: Social support, Type 2 diabetes, Prediabetes, Fasting glucose INTRODUCTIONDiabetes is divided into type 1 diabetes from lack or deficiency of insulin hormone and type 2 diabetes caused by insulin resistance. Among these two types, type 2 diabetes is responsible for more than 95% of all diabetes patients (Kim et al., 2011). Diabetes can be classified according to blood sugar levels into normal blood sugar level, diabetic blood sugar level, and impaired fasting blood sugar as a pre-diabetes. Impaired fasting blood sugar corresponds to a high risk of type 2 diabetes, and it has been receiving great interest as a research target to prevent diabetes (Chun, 2011).Type 2 diabetic patients uses the highest medical expense among single diseases, and mortality rate of type 2 diabetes is also increasing (Lee et al., 2014). Rapid increase in type 2 diabetes is expected to reach 333 million globally 2025, bringing anxiety for the medical and political world (Van et al., 2005).With expectation of further increase in the number of type 2 diabetes patients from the aging population, one of the reasons for social and national concerns is that it shows high incidence of complications (Choi and Jo, 2013 ○ CC This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.-190 -injury, diabetic microvessel, and complication of large vessels to cause coronary artery disea...

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