In addition to Covid, an unspecified gastrointestinal virus is now rampant in North Korea. It could be cholera or typhoid. The outbreak is reported from a region considered the country’s “rice bowl”.
North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju are preparing medicines to be sent to the city of Haeju, which has been hit by a gastrointestinal virus.
North Korea is not only struggling with its first corona outbreak. Now there are also reports that an unspecified intestinal epidemic is rampant in the country. According to South Korean experts, it could be cholera or typhoid.
On Sunday, state media reported that medical workers and epidemiologists were sent to Hwanghae province to fight and investigate the outbreak. At least 800 families suffering from what North Korea calls an “acute intestinal epidemic” have received help so far.
According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, residents of the affected province are being examined and the sick are being treated and quarantined. In addition, the environment will be disinfected.
The cause of the spread is unclear
The agency reported last Wednesday that ruler Kim Jong Un had sent medicines to the western port city of Haeju to help patients suffering from an “acute intestinal epidemic” as quickly as possible. More detailed information on the type of disease and the number of infected people was not given.
Propagandistic images were spread by Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju, showing the ruling couple providing “personal” medicines that they want to “donate” to the affected region.
The outbreak occurred in South Hwanghae province, which is considered the country’s “rice bowl”. The region is currently battling a drought that could threaten the country’s food production for this year. Due to the Corona outbreak, South Hwanghae has been in lockdown since mid-May. Cities, districts, villages and individual work units are said to be cut off from each other. It is therefore unclear how the newly discovered virus spread between the sealed off areas. However, according to the state media, most professional groups and especially farmers were allowed to work again. In addition, material was delivered between the regions.
According to South Korea’s intelligence services, diseases such as typhus, which are also transmitted through contaminated water, were already widespread in North Korea before Pyongyang even announced the outbreak of the corona virus. “Intestinal diseases such as typhoid and Shigellosis (bacterial dysentery) are not new to North Korea, but it is worrying that the present epidemic comes at a time when the country is already struggling with Covid-19,” professor Shin Young Jeon of Seoul’s Hanyang University College of Medicine told the Reuters news agency.
South Korea is ready to work with the North to help fight the disease, but Pyongyang is not responding to offers of dialogue, including Seoul’s earlier suggestion to provide coronavirus vaccines, said an official with South Korea’s unification ministry, in charge of inter-Korean affairs is.
The WHO doubts that the Covid wave will subside
The reported outbreak comes at a time when the North is grappling with the first outbreak of Covid-19 infections. A state of emergency was declared in May due to a lack of vaccines and medical supplies.
On Thursday, North Korea reported 26,010 cases of people with “fever symptoms,” bringing the total number of fever patients registered nationwide since the end of April to nearly 4.56 million. There is talk of fever patients because there is a lack of test capacities. The number of deaths is officially 73. Experts assume that the actual numbers are far higher.
While Pyongyang claims there are signs the coronavirus wave is abating, the World Health Organization (WHO) believes the situation is getting worse.