Bills to overhaul the infectious disease response system led by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency have passed the National Assembly. A national management framework to strengthen antibiotic resistance control has been established, and a legal basis was also created for financial support to institutions obligated to conduct tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis screenings. The law now specifies a remedy process related to quarantine measures, which had been controversial during infectious disease responses.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on the 8th that amendments to the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act and the Tuberculosis Prevention Act passed the National Assembly plenary session on the 7th.
The amendment to the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act focuses on strengthening, at the national level, the system for managing antibiotic use and resistance. It requires that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria management plan established by the Minister of Health and Welfare include antibiotic stewardship, prescribing standards, collection of usage data, and operation of related personnel, facilities, and information systems.
A new legal basis also allows the agency commissioner to develop standard guidelines for antibiotic stewardship and to promote projects such as building and operating information systems, managing and evaluating medical institutions, and improving awareness. It will also be possible to support the expense needed for personnel, facilities, equipment, education, and research.
With this amendment, the agency said the legal basis has been established for the ongoing pilot project on appropriate antibiotic use, and it expects the foundation to be strengthened for implementing the Third National Antibiotic Resistance Management Plan (2026–2030).
Safeguards for basic rights during infectious disease responses were also reinforced. The amendment clarifies the definition of a "suspected infectious disease case," who may be subject to hospitalization or quarantine. Previously defined as a person who had contact with, or was suspected of having contact with, an infectious disease patient, it is now specified as a person who had contact during the transmissible period or has epidemiological links and is at risk of infection.
If the grounds for hospitalization or quarantine are resolved, the agency commissioner or the head of a local government must immediately notify the individual and the guardian. If quarantine is not lifted without justifiable reason, relief may be sought by applying the Habeas Corpus Act mutatis mutandis.
The amendment to the Tuberculosis Prevention Act passed alongside it chiefly creates a legal basis for financial support to institutions obligated to conduct tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis screenings.
The target institutions are medical institutions, postpartum care providers, schools, kindergartens, daycare centers, and child welfare facilities. Under the amendment, special self-governing cities and provinces and cities, counties, and districts may bear all or part of the expense of tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis screenings.
The agency expects the amendment to ease the screening expense burden on institution and school operators and to strengthen management of facilities densely populated by infection-vulnerable groups such as patients, newborns, and infants and toddlers.