Abstract
On June 28, 2024, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency released the 2023 Annual Report on Notified Infectious Diseases, which summarizes the status of notifiable infectious diseases reported in 2023. Class 1 to Class 4 notifiable infectious diseases were categorized into 89 types according to the Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Act and the Notification by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. In 2023, 42 of the 66 infectious diseases subject to total monitoring were reported. Furthermore, the number of reported cases involving mandatory surveillance of infectious diseases was 5,626,627, a significant decrease from 28,517,180 in 2022. However, excluding coronavirus disease 2019 (hereinafter referred to as COVID-19), there were 109,087 cases involving mandatory surveillance, an increase of 17.5% from 92,831 in 2022. The major infectious diseases with year-on-year increases were chickenpox, infection with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, mumps, and malaria, and the major infectious diseases that decreased were tuberculosis, hepatitis A and C, scrub typhus, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (hereinafter referred to as AIDS). The number of cases of imported infectious diseases reported in 2023 was 7,122, a decrease of 87.3% from 2022 but an increase of 113.7% on exclusion of COVID-19. The leading imported infectious diseases were COVID-19, dengue fever, and malaria. The number of deaths reported in 2023, excluding those from tuberculosis, was 4,624, a decrease of 83.0% from 2022 but an increase of 20.1% on exclusion of COVID-19. The leading infectious diseases that caused deaths included COVID-19 and infection with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales.