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| Medical staff and a patient talk in Myongji Hospital's quarantine ward. / Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Five Korean students who visited India have been stricken with typhoid fever.
The students are from Sangmyung University's Cheonan Campus in South Chungcheong Province, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday.
They had visited India's northern region, including the cities of Agra and New Delhi, with 18 other students and two instructors as part of the school's overseas education program from July 19 to 27.
After they returned, seven sought medical attention for fever, chills and diarrhea. Four were diagnosed with the typhoid.
In a follow-up check, another student was diagnosed with the disease.
Four of the five students remain quarantined in a hospital. One student was released from quarantine on Friday.
Of 225 Koreans who caught typhoid fever abroad, between 2011-2016, 23 percent had visited India.
The health authority advised that people planning to visit India should be vaccinated against the waterborne disease, which is also infectious through food.
Health officials also said that people who experience fever, chills and diarrhea within 60 days ― the disease's maximum latency period ― after returning from India must report to a hospital to be checked for the disease.
