Tuberculosis (TB) in North Korea, long an endemic problem in many regions, is getting worse, according to sources. Chronic food shortages and poor diet have weakened people’s immune systems which, when combined with ineffective medical systems, has helped to speed up the spread of infection.
One source from the Pyongan region said he believes that tuberculosis is the most common illness in North Korea today, noting that “in the worst affected areas about 3 in 10 people have the condition.”
Hospitals, the source added, are “completely full of TB patients. Since rations stopped people cannot eat properly and the disease is spreading.”
Another source from Yangkang Province added, “So many people have TB that it’s not considered an illness by ordinary people or even hospitals anymore.”
Professor Sharon Perry, an epidemiologist from Stanford University with experience of working with TB in North Korea says that there is now a 10% increase in infections year-on-year, and that this has been true for the last five straight years.
Worse still, Professor Perry says that roughly 50% of the North Korean population is believed to carry tubercular bacillus, the latent bacteria which causes tuberculosis. Perry believes the biggest problem is that dormant carriers of the bacteria do not receive medical treatment, since this leads many to eventually fall victim because of their weakened immune systems and malnutrition.
Because there is also a serious shortage of relevant medication, the hands of hospitals are tied. Numerous sources have confirmed to The Daily NK that patients able to do so buy their own medicine in the jangmadang. Even medication provided as aid by the international community is on sale there, sources suggest.
A source from North Hamgyung Province explained, “If you go to the hospital they will issue you a prescription but the pharmacy doesn’t have medicine so the only option is to buy it in the jangmadang.”
“There are a lot of cases where people can’t buy the medicine they need even if they have the money,” the source also said, noting however that “it’s easier to get medicine if you can go through a military doctor.”
For those unable to do so, medical staff recommend places they know to carry authentic medicine, according to the source, since the danger of buying fake, ineffective products is high.
The situation amongst the military is not especially different. Although military hospitals are the first to get their hands on foreign medical aid, they are struggling to keep up with the increase in TB patients.
Meanwhile, according to a staff member from one aid organization fighting TB in North Korea, there has been an explosion in cases of drug-resistant TB, too. In Pyongyang, Pyongan Provinces and Nampo alone, between 500 and 600 people have been reported as having a resistant form of tuberculosis.
“The average recovery time for a TB patient is about 6 months,” the source said, “but because of the economic circumstances and the difficulty in sourcing medicine many people are stopping the course before they are completely recovered, and this has caused a severe upward trend in resistant cases of TB.”
Despite the gravity of the situation in most regions of North Korea, the authorities do not appear to be implementing any policy other than the standard one of quarantining infected individuals.
