North Korea confirms swine flu cases

9 Dec 2009, 3:43 pm   -   Source: AAP
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North Korea has for the first time announced cases of swine flu, confirming overseas reports of an outbreak in the secretive communist state.

North Korea has for the first time announced cases of swine flu, confirming overseas reports of an outbreak in the secretive communist state.

The health ministry on Wednesday reported a total of nine cases of (A)H1N1 in the capital Pyongyang and the city of Sinuiju on the Chinese border, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Authorities put a quarantine system in place and centres have been set up nationwide to check for new cases, the news agency said.

South Korea's unification ministry said it would send a message to the North offering swift deliveries of Tamiflu and other medicine, following a proposal on Tuesday by President Lee Myung-Bak.

"Assistance must be provided swiftly as the disease could quickly spread in North Korea where conditions are not so good," Lee said.

Most government-to-government aid was suspended after cross-border relations worsened last year, although private Seoul groups still send shipments northwards.

Observers say the virus could pose a particular threat to the impoverished North because of malnutrition amid persistent food shortages and a lack of drugs.

Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group that has cross-border contacts, reported on Monday the disease has been spreading rapidly because Tamiflu is rare there.

It said seven youths died in Pyongyang in November while two others reportedly died in Pyongsong north of the capital.

Schools last Friday started their winter vacation a month early to guard against the spread of the disease, the group said, adding that many North Koreans are particularly vulnerable because of weakened immune systems due to malnutrition.

Public health conditions are also dire with medical equipment and medicine in short supply and clean drinking water and sanitised items frequently problematic, it said.

The conservative Dong-A Ilbo newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying that North Korea has secured Tamiflu and other drugs through foreign missions in Europe but only for leader Kim Jong-Il and other top officials.

In May the World Health Organization supplied a total 2.4 million courses of Tamiflu to 72 countries, but Seoul officials said the North's likely share of this would be grossly inadequate.

"Considering the North's population is 24 million, and the infection rate going up to 20 to 30 per cent in underdeveloped countries, the North would need the drug by the millions," said Kwon Jun-Wook, a swine flu specialist at the South's health ministry.

North Korea has a high death rate from pneumonia, which rises when there is a food shortage.

Kwon told Yonhap news agency the (A)H1N1 virus has an even higher infection rate than pneumonia and would be more dangerous to the North Korean people.

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