North Korea’s conundrum as hundreds infected with ‘stomach disease’ and forced into quarantine – World News

Leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered the imposition of quarantines to try to contain the new disease, which some health experts believe could be cholera or typhoid.

North Korea has said it was an outbreak of an unidentified stomach disease, shortly after Pyongyang admitted it was battling rising Covid infections.

Leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered the imposition of quarantines to try to contain the new disease, which some health experts believe could be cholera or typhoid.

The dictator on Wednesday (June 15) said he had sent medicines to affected areas to help those struggling with this “acute enteric epidemic”.

State-run media agency KCNA said: “Respectable Secretary-General Kim Jong Un has sent medicines made by his family to Haeju City, South Hwanghae Province.

“[Kim] stressed the need to contain the epidemic at the earliest opportunity by taking a well thought out measure to quarantine the suspected cases in order to thoroughly contain its spread.”

The propagandist state media reported that people started crying and shouted “Long live Comrade Kim Jong-un!” after receiving the medicine from their leader.

Gastrointestinal diseases infect the gastrointestinal tract and are usually transmitted through contaminated food or water – they can also spread from person to person.

North Korean officials have reportedly started disinfecting sewage and other waste materials. KCNA added that quarantines have been put in place alongside “intensive screenings for all residents,” reports The sun.

Last month, North Korea declared a state of emergency after announcing that millions of its citizens were suffering from what global health experts believe are untested Covid-19 infections.

The government described the fever outbreak as the “most serious national emergency” and imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb infections.

More than 26,000 cases of fever were reported as of Thursday (June 16), taking the total number of patients recorded nationwide since the end of April to 4.56 million.

The isolated communist nation is also grappling with long-term food shortages that are likely to have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before the pandemic, the World Food Program estimated that approximately 11 million people – or more than 40% of the country’s population – were malnourished and in need of immediate assistance.

North Korea has turned down support from global aid agencies to ease its food crisis and rejected offers from foreign governments to receive doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.