North Korea: the epidemics and diseases that have plagued its population in recent years

In full swing of coronavirus, North Korea just reported that he is also facing a “acute intestinal epidemic”. Its eccentric leader, Kim Jong-un, plans to respond to the threat in the same way as with the COVID-19: quarantines for the infected.

According to the Government, just on Tuesday of this week there were about 26 thousand cases of “fever”. What do you mean? For the EFE agency, the term responds to the limited capacity of test to the population by coronavirus.

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While for “South Korean intelligence services”, may be cases of measles, anger either typhoid fevers. Hepatitis A or the rotavirus are also possibilities, if one takes into account that in North Korea “many places do not have adequate water sanitation systems”.

What other epidemics and diseases has the country been exposed to in recent times? In this article we recall some of them.

bird flu

In March 2005, the World Health Organization -through its organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO)- detected cases in “a couple of farms in the capital“So they sacrificed”hundreds of thousands of chickens”.

The outbreak would only be controlled in April of that same year. During the investigation it was found that theH7 strain of avian influenza virus” was found in several poultry, but that the situation was not “directly related to the H5N1 virus of bird flu circulating in other parts of Asia”.

A different situation was experienced in May 2013. Then, the Government confirmed that several ducks were infected with the H5N1 virus. Fortunately, the situation came under control.

Tuberculosis

The iO Foundation reminds that, by 2020, North Korea It was him “the fifth country in the world” with “more cases per 100,000 inhabitants, after Lesotho (645), South Africa (615), the Philippines (554) and the Central African Republic (540)”. And adds:

“The total number of patients with tuberculosis was 132,000, including 5,200 people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The incidence rate of MDR-TB was 20 per 100,000 people”:

The situation was even more difficult if one takes into account that “nutrition is an important factor in the fight against tuberculosis, since malnourished people are more susceptible to the disease since their immune system is lowered”.

And of course the undernourishment is part of life North Korea. If that variable is taken, the country ranked third in the world, with 48%. They surpassed him Central African Republic Y Zimbabwewith 60% and 51%, respectively.

“regimen Pyongyang ranks 12th from the bottom in countries with the lowest budget to fight TB, including among the 30 high-risk countries”, added the organization.

Propaganda in which Kim Jong-un is seen checking some medicines, which were then sent to the people of North Korea. AP

Measles

In the absence of official figures, we have the testimonies of deserters, such as the doctor Choi Jung-hunwho fled the Kim dictatorship in 2011. According to him, he helped “combat an outbreak of measles between 2006 and 2007“, despite “North Korea did not have the resources to run quarantine and isolation facilities 24 hours a day”.

There is a manual, he said, that indicates that patients should be “transferred to a hospital or a quarantine center for control”, but that the indication was almost always a dead letter.

In an interview with CNN, the doctor said: “The problem in North Korea is that the manuals are not followed. When there was not enough food for people in hospitals and quarantine facilities, people would run away to find food.”.

Hepatitis B

In 2017, the RT portal recalls, a 24-year-old North Korean military deserter was given health tests. What was found was scandalous: the young I had “signs of depression, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and parasites larger than 10 inchesills that some believe certify the nutrition and hygiene problems suffered by the population of the country led by Kim Jong-un”.

It is a disease that has tried to be combated with international aid, despite the great problems that the government itself north korean presents -in 2018, for example, two containers with personal hygiene products for the sick were stranded for two weeks in a Chinese port-.

In 2010, smilies financed a campaign and managed to immunize half a million children against hepatitis B. According to the organization, “more doses were needed throughout the country.”

Source: Elcomercio