North Korea is facing what it calls an outbreak of “unknown bowel disease”. It could be a form of cholera or typhoid.
The state-controlled Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reports, without providing further details, that the port city of Haeju is facing a “serious enteric epidemic”.
At least 800 families and 1,600 people affected by this “acute enteric epidemic” also received medical aid in the province of Hwanghae in the South where the city of Haeju is located.
According to Reuters, South Korean authorities believe the mysterious outbreak was likely caused by cholera or typhoid, two bacterial diseases contracted through contaminated water or food.
According to South Korean officials, it could be a form of cholera or typhoid.
This new epidemic in any case exerts additional pressure in a country already in the grip of a wave of new Covid cases.
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North Korea recorded “18,820 new cases of fever” on Monday as it deals with the first official outbreak of COVID-19, the official North Korean news agency KCNA announced on Monday.
On Sunday, the news agency had detailed the prevention efforts, including the establishment of quarantine measures to deal with this situation. A campaign of “intensive screening for all residents” as well as’ “special supervision of vulnerable people such as children and the elderly” are now in force to limit the spread of the epidemic. Disinfection work is underway, including sewage, to ensure the safety of drinking water, the media said.
KCNA had reported an additional 19,310 new cases of fever on Sunday, without specifying how many of those patients had tested positive for the coronavirus.
More than 4.6 million people are said to have had fever symptoms since the Covid epidemic was first recognized in mid-May. As of June 19, 73 deaths related to this “fever” had been reported by KCNA. As it is impossible to independently verify the numbers of infections and recoveries reported by North Korean state media, cases of fever related to the intestinal disease remain very difficult to define among the millions of fever cases. .
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The World Health Organization had hinted earlier this month that the situation in North Korea could worsen. WHO emergency chief Michael Ryan, however, said the world organization did not have access to reliable data from North Korea. Offers from the WHO, South Korea and the United States to send vaccines and medical aid to North Korea have been rejected or met with silence from the Kim Jong Un regime.