Sung Hye Kim김성혜

Infectious diseases: elimination and surveillance

Much of my early work grew out of the Pacific Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis. Elimination surveys reach children in every school of a country, and I used these transmission assessment surveys as a platform to collect stool and blood samples and measure other infections at the same time — soil-transmitted helminths, intestinal protozoa and Strongyloides in Fiji — and to confirm that transmission had been interrupted in Wallis and Futuna.

The same approach carried over to Timor-Leste, where school surveys led to the molecular confirmation of human Taenia solium and T. saginata taeniasis in a country where these parasites had barely been documented. My current work looks at what “endgame” surveillance needs as infections become rare, from multiplex PCR for helminths in Fiji to dengue surveillance and its climate drivers in Lao PDR.

• 2026 Revealing the hidden burden: multiplex real-time PCR for ‘endgame’ surveillance of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in Fiji Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg
  Molecular diagnostics uncover helminth infections that routine microscopy misses as prevalence falls.
• 2026 Climate drivers and winter constraints of dengue epidemics in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Infect Dis Poverty
  Ten years of surveillance data link dengue epidemics to climate, with cool winters limiting transmission.
• 2025 Evaluating the effectiveness of dengue surveillance in tropical and sub-tropical Asian nations through dengue case data from returning travelers Travel Med Infect Dis
  Uses cases in returning travellers to test how well national surveillance in endemic countries captures dengue.
• 2024 Molecular confirmation of Taenia solium taeniasis in child, Timor-Leste Emerg Infect Dis
  The first documented human T. solium taeniasis in Timor-Leste, found through a national school survey.

Infectious disease policy in Korea

Travel, migration and a warming climate are bringing tropical and imported infections closer to Korea. For the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), I have developed staged response strategies for imported mosquito-borne diseases, evaluated how other countries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic to draw lessons for Korea’s preparedness, and designed the sampling framework and elimination-certification model for intestinal parasites. Related research projects the long-term trend of Clonorchis sinensis infection in Korea and examines why migrants with tuberculosis are lost to follow-up.

• 2025 Determinants of the lost to follow-up status among patients with tuberculosis who emigrated to the Republic of Korea: a mixed-method study Front Public Health
  Why migrants with tuberculosis drop out of care in Korea.
• 2024 Age, period, and cohort effects of Clonorchis sinensis infection prevalence in the Republic of Korea: insights and projections PLoS Negl Trop Dis
  Separates age, period and cohort effects in liver fluke infection and projects future prevalence.
• 2024 Staged response strategies for imported mosquito-borne diseases KDCA report
• 2023 Evaluation of overseas pandemic responses and lessons for Korea KDCA report

Health service delivery

High coverage figures can hide care that is late or incomplete. Through household surveys designed and conducted with Lao partners, I assess the availability and quality of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services in two mountainous provinces, Xiengkhuang and Huaphanh: whether women start antenatal care early enough, receive its essential components, and stay in care from pregnancy through childhood. The findings point to geographic and ethnic gaps that national averages miss.

I am now bringing the same lens to non-communicable diseases, through a programme in Fiji that strengthens community health services to implement the national NCD strategy.

• 2026 Maternal, newborn, and child health continuum of care: completion and associated factors in Xiengkhuang and Huaphanh, Lao PDR Trop Med Health
  How many mothers complete care from pregnancy through early childhood, and what predicts it.
• 2025 Incomplete antenatal care despite high coverage: geographic and sociocultural barriers in Lao PDR Front Public Health
  High coverage masks late and incomplete antenatal care among geographically and ethnically marginalised women.
• 2022 Formulation study: improving health service quality and NCD management in north-western Cambodia KOFIH report
• 2022 Formulation study: strengthening emergency obstetric and newborn care in Dodoma, Tanzania KOFIH report

Official development assistance

I advise the Government of Korea on the development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of its health ODA. This ranges from formulation studies that shape new projects (Cambodia, Tanzania), to results-based management of ongoing programmes (Solomon Islands, KOICA public–private partnerships), to evaluations of whole portfolios. I am interested in how monitoring and evaluation can feed back into programme design, and in making Korea’s health ODA more accountable to the countries it serves.

• 2024 Formulation study: infectious disease surveillance through diagnostic and research capacity of the National Public Health Laboratory, Tanzania KOFIH report
• 2021 Korea’s regional development cooperation strategy: ODA for Asia (co-author) KIEP policy report
• 2020 Evaluation of KOFIH’s international health assistance programme, 2016–2018 KOFIH report
  An evaluation of 32 projects funded through KOFIH and the Community Chest of Korea.
• See all projects.

Work in progress