Adults should refrain from drinking more than four cups of coffee, the recommended maximum daily caffeine intake, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday. For adolescents, two cans of energy drinks can exceed the maximum daily caffeine intake. According to the ministry, drinking beyond the recommended amount of caffeine can trigger side effects such as anxiety and insomnia. A resea...

South Korean biotech firms are exporting their novel coronavirus test kits as countries scramble to stem the rapid spread by isolating infected people, industry sources said Tuesday. Seegene, Kogene Biotech, Solgent, SD Biosensor and other companies have all received permission from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to sell their products in South Korea, as well as in overseas markets....

River of Grace Community Church in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is alleged to have sprayed saltwater into the mouths of people attending church services on March 1 and 8, which may have contributed to the cluster infection of at least 46 people with the novel coronavirus. “It is very unfortunate. As we were reviewing the CCTV footage from River of Grace Community Church, we found that members of...

Harvard epidemiology professor estimates up to 60 percent of adults will get infected

“For February, we had to expand our capacity as the number of members rose from around 9,000 to over 10,000. We also had over 10,000 people signing up for the class in March,” startup Dano spokesperson Lee Jae-woo said. The startup’s app My Dano provides a personal fitness coaching program, through which a trainer helps the member work out and manage what they eat. “When our members send photos o...

The abrupt outbreak of the novel coronavirus, officially named as COVID-19, has been dominating headlines around the world. The virus, widely believed to have originated from China’s Hubei province last year, has sparked global concerns outside the mainland ever since. Moreover, the epidemic has disrupted the everyday lives of many South Koreans in many ways. Concerns and fears are mounting here...

According to the society, 39,279 samples from 24,248 persons had been tested as of Saturday. Sung Heung-sup, a laboratory medicine professor at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, said the current COVID-19 testing kits were “beyond expectation” in terms of specificity and sensitivity. But in stages when the amount of virus in the body remains low, a patient may test negative even as he or she may act...

The new coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last year has now killed more than 2,000 people and spread around the world. The latest figures from China show there were more than 74,185 people infected in the country as of Wednesday. SARS was also a coronavirus, and that outbreak started in a wet market too. It infected 8,098 people and killed 774 between November 2002 and ...

A series of novel coronavirus cases without epidemiological ties to previous patients have been reported in Korea in the past four days, with one believed to be linked to at least 15 others. A Korean woman, 61, who started having symptoms as early as Feb. 7, continued with her daily tasks until she was found to be infected Tuesday. Over the 11 intervening days, authorities say she came into clo...

More than 85,000 terminally ill South Koreans have chosen to forgo life-prolonging treatment since the legalization of the right to die with dignity two years ago, government data showed. The law took effect on Feb. 4, 2018, allowing terminal patients to sign up to forgo a “meaningless extension of life” by stopping or postponing four life-sustaining treatments. According to the data from th...

Infectious disease experts say virus battle far from over

What is it, how bad is it, and how can we protect ourselves?

Can holiday stress lead to heart malfunctions?

Seven in 10 lung cancer patients who have undergone surgery at Asan Medical Center in Seoul have survived, the hospital said in a report. The cardiothoracic surgery department at Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul said Monday the postsurgery survival rate of patients with lung cancer, the sixth most common cancer among Koreans, has improved markedly over the past decade. In the hospital’s st...

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- Korea is hosting an international meeting to fight the rising public health threat of drug resistance. The seventh session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission task force on antimicrobial resistance kicked off Monday in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, to be held for five days through Friday. In 2015, the World Health Assembly adopted a global action plan to tackl...