Two Koreas to restart medical exchange

By Kim Hyun-bin

The third inter-Korean summit in mid-September has opened a wide array of possibilities to enhance relations between the two Koreas. Among them, the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in quarantine and healthcare to prevent an influx of diseases that could spread through frequent interactions.

Healthcare issues in general have been relatively free from politics and ideology, but tensions on the Korean Peninsula have virtually frozen any exchanges, even in the medical sector, since 2008. However, with the recent reconciliatory atmosphere, healthcare and medical exchanges could become one of the first inter-Korean cooperation projects.

“The two Koreas are afraid of the diseases each has, so it will be easier for the two sides to enhance cooperation in healthcare and the medical field. The South's diseases could be spread in the North and vice versa,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said during a National Assembly government audit session, Oct. 10. “If the two sides agree to increase medical exchanges to better deal with disease prevention, we need to regularly communicate with North Korea.”

Fear of North's malaria and tuberculosis

What South Korea fears the most from the North is malaria and tuberculosis.

“We are expecting North Korea to ask for aid with tuberculosis and malaria treatments and child vaccination for German measles,” Cho Won-jun, a health and welfare adviser to the Democratic Party of Korea, said during a recent debate.

Tuberculosis is rampant in North Korea; excluding key cities, most areas are vulnerable and defenseless to the disease.

According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) tuberculosis report, the disease infects 513 and kills 43 out of every 100,000 people in the North, exceeding any other country. In 2016 alone, 11,000 people died from the disease in North Korea.

The number is 5.5 times higher than 1998's 2,000, according to statistics released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Back in 1998 the number was comparatively low because South Korea and the international community provided medical aid to the North.

An even greater problem is that the disease could build up a tolerance to antibiotics, becoming multiple drug resistance.

With increased personal exchanges, there could be a greater risk of an outbreak in South Korea.

Malarias has also become a problem with people living near the border in the South, who have been infected by mosquitoes carrying the disease from the North.

North afraid of viruses

Experts point out novel influenza and flu viruses from the South may be the No. 1 concern in the North as the regime is ill-prepared to prevent their spread.

“We predict North Korea most fears novel influenza and other infectious diseases which they are not prepared for,” a health ministry official said. “When we start a joint investigation and discussions, we will have a better understanding of their situation.”

In need of control tower

Many experts are calling for the establishment of a “control tower” that coordinates related government agencies and non-profit entities as well as making sure the medical treatments and medicines are rightly distributed to the people in need.

Critics say there was a great deal of inter-Korean medical exchanges during the Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung administrations, but there wasn't a control tower to oversee the whole process. In some cases, medicines were not distributed to vulnerable areas and too much was provided to certain locations.

“There needs to be a control tower that oversees the whole process. The health ministry operates a taskforce but this is not enough; the unification ministry and the finance ministry need to be involved as well as other related government and civilian entities,” Kim Sin-gon, a professor of the College of Medicine at Korea University, said. “The control tower needs to oversee the whole process from finding out patient situations to distribution and treatment.”

Supporting North Korea, a country that lacks medical technology and treatment, doesn't come cheap, but Kim believes that through research on patient conditions there, the South Korean government can gain medical breakthroughs.

“North Korea has many diseases we don't have here, including parasites, making it hard to research. We have great scientists, and through research and development we could find medical breakthroughs that could be exported, which in turn could bring a profit,” Kim added.

On Oct. 15 the two Koreas agreed to hold their first meeting, dealing with healthcare and medical exchanges, later in the month to better prevent any influx of diseases to each other, among other medical issues.