Intestinal disease new worry for North Korea

KOREA: North Korea says that hundreds of families have fallen ill with an unidentified intestinal disease, heaping pressure on a crumbling healthcare system already strained by COVID-19. Pyongyang announced its first coronavirus cases last month and activated a “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system”, with leader Kim Jong Un putting himself front and centre of the Government’s response.

Even so, the virus tore through the unvaccinated population of 25 million, with more than 4.5 million cases of “fever” and 73 deaths to date, according to figures published by state media but difficult to confirm.

The medicine will be delivered to “over 800 families suffering from the acute epidemic which broke out in some areas of South Hwanghae Province”, KCNA reported on Friday.

The figure suggests at least 1,600 people have been infected with the enteric disease. The reports have sparked speculation that the unspecified disease may be cholera or typhoid. – THE BANGKOK POST