South Korea - The Korea Times

KCDC to look into Koreans' gambling addiction

By Kim Hyun-binThe Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) will conduct a nationwide survey next year to find out the severity of gambling addiction in the country, the first of its kind here. The move is part of the “regional health survey,” which is the only local statistics gathered under the Regional Public Health Act that surveys local residents' health conditions. The survey is undertaken every two years, but the gambling addiction questions will be newly added. It will be conducted in 2019 in 17 major cities and provinces and 253 cities and counties _ the results will be released a year later.The KCDC will look into several aspects of gambling and its effects including whether it negatively affects people's daily lives _ if the person has lied about their gambling habit, and whether they have the urge to gamble.According to the Korea Center on Gambling Problems (KCGP), a state-run agency, as of 2016 there are close to 2 million people, or 5.1 percent of the population over the age of 20, who are addicted to gambling.Gambling addiction has become a s

Oct 3, 2018

Use of opioids in pregnancy may stunt child development

CHICAGO (AP) _ Learning disabilities and other special education needs are common in children born with opioid-related symptoms from their mother's drug use while pregnant, according to the first big U.S. study to examine potential long-term problems in these infants. About one in seven affected children required special classroom services for problems including developmental delays and speech or language difficulties, compared with about one in 10 children not exposed to opioids before birth, the study found. The study highlights the “absolutely critical” importance of early detection and intervention, before these children reach school age, to give them a better chance of academic success, said Dr. Nathalie Maitre, a developmental specialist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “It really confirms what those of us who do neurodevelopment follow-up of these children are seeing.” The study involved about 7,200 children aged three to eight enrolled in Tennessee's Medicaid program. Nearly 2,000 of them were born with what doctors call “neo

Oct 3, 2018

Beware of ticks and poisonous mushrooms in fall

By Kim Hyun-binMany people enjoy outdoor activities in the mild fall weather. But there are diseases easily caught in the season, so health authorities are urging people to take caution. Trombiculiasis is one of the leading infectious diseases prominent during the fall season, which is a rash caused by trombiculid mites, also referred to as a chigger bite.According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), over 10,500 Trombiculiasis patients were reported in 2017 and among them 18 died. The peak season is between September and November, when over 80 percent of the total are usually reported.Most of the infected were over the age 50 and located in rural farming areas. Some 60 percent of the infected were women.Mites are the cause of several infectious disease including thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. SFTS is caused by Haemaphysalis longicornis, while Lyme disease and tick-born encephalitis are caused by ticks.As of July, there have been 56 cases of SFTS, but that number is expected to sharply rise in the coming month as

Oct 3, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

Beware of ticks and poisonous mushrooms in fall

MFDS cracks down on falsely advertised 'cleanse juice' products

By Kim Hyun-binHealth officials are warning consumers not to purchase “cleanse juice” products as their makers were found to have falsely advertised them as having health benefits. The overpriced products, which manufacturers claim help remove fat and detoxify the body, have been a hit item at online shopping malls.The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) announced Tuesday that it found 25 products sold at 218 websites having false or exaggerated claims made about them.The ministry analyzed and compared the nutrients of the “detox and dietary” products and found that there was no noticeable difference in calories and sodium or sugar content compared to other ordinary fruit or vegetable juices on the market. More than 63 percent of advertisements for the products showed false information about them, including that they have detoxification effects; 20.6 percent misled consumers to believe the products were categorized as health functional foods that would help them lose weight; and 15.6 percent said the products prevented and helped cure cancer.“The adv

Oct 2, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

MFDS cracks down on falsely advertised 'cleanse juice' products

Money most important in old age: survey

By Kim Jae-heunFour out of 10 people said money would be most important in their old age, which was more than good health and family, a report showed Monday. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare report submitted to Rep. Yoon Jong-pil of the Liberty Korea Party, 82.8 percent of 2,000 adults surveyed in 2017 also said the country's aging issue was a serious problem.Over 83 percent also said they were worried about the influence of an aging society on their lives, with 16.4.percent saying they were “seriously concerned.”For people's later years, money has pushed out health and family to become the most important factor.Nearly 40 percent of the respondents picked “financial stability” as the most important element, pushing out “health,” which ranked top in the survey a year before. Health ranked second in the survey, with 38 percent, down by 10.3 percentage points.Employment ranked third with 6.9 percent, followed by friends and relationships, with 6 percent, and hobbies and volunteer work with 4.9 percent.When asked at what age they would c

Oct 1, 2018By Kim Jae-heun

Ulsan Police Agency bans after-hours private contact with subordinates

By Park Si-soo Ulsan Police Agency has banned its officials from making private after-hours contact with subordinates, especially the opposite sex, as part of efforts to prevent abuse of power and sexual violence. It is the first police agency in South Korea to adopt such a rule. The move follows female officials' collective complaints in August about after-hours private contacts from male senior officials, many of which were unwanted invitations to dinners or other private events. The six-point ordinance bans one-to-one contact by phone, text message and social networking services and the repeated sending of unrequested documents. But it restricts nothing between same-sex officials or in group chat rooms. Officials must also check their own possible sexual conduct with a smartphone app produced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

Oct 1, 2018

Ulsan Police Agency bans after-hours private contact with subordinates

'Nursing students forced to take pants off in enema training'

A senior nurse shows how to insert needles into blood vessels, with a new nurse as the subject, during a training session at Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital in this February photo. It was disclosed recently that at some nursing schools students are forced to receive an enema in front of classmates as a guinea pig, raising issues of human rights infringement. / YonhapBy Jung Hae-myoungA human rights violation controversy has emerged after it was found that some nursing schools here force students to act as guinea pigs by receiving an enema in front of classmates.Act Now Nurse, a group advocating nurses' human rights, said it plans to file a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea against seven schools for human rights infringement.The practice became known after a student accused one school of randomly picking one student each from four- to five-member groups to become the “patient of the day” for the enema training.“One student in each group is picked by drawing lots, and it is the atmosphere that the selected student cannot say no. Having to show m

Sep 30, 2018

'Nursing students forced to take pants off in enema training'

British celebrity Simon Cowell donates $32,600 to shut Korean dog meat farm

Simon Cowell's donation “a huge boost.” ReutersBy Park Si-sooBritish celebrity Simon Cowell has donated 25,000 euros ($32,640) to the animal rights group Humane Society International (HSI) to help close a dog meat farm in South Korea. HIS announced Cowell's donation on Friday, saying his money would be used to “save over 200 dogs and puppies at a South Korean dog farm that breeds the animals for human consumption.” HIS didn't elaborate on the farm, including its name and location. The animal rights group said its staff would visit South Korea next week to pick up the dogs, which would be sent to various countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands for recovery and adoption.“Simon's generous donation means the world to us, and provides a huge boost to our appeal to close this horrendous dog meat farm,” HSI U.K. Executive Director Claire Bass said in a statement. “More than 200 dogs are languishing in the most appalling conditions, but we have a real chance to save them.“These poor dogs have had the worst lives so fa

Sep 30, 2018

British celebrity Simon Cowell donates $32,600 to shut Korean dog meat farm

More women turn to illegal abortion drugs

By Kim Hyun-binWith one month passing since the OB-GYN doctors' abortion boycott, more women have been found taking illegal abortion drugs as their next best alternative. On Aug. 17, the Ministry of Health and Welfare included abortion as an “immoral medical practice” and came up with a plan to impose a one-month license suspension on doctors who conduct the procedure. In response, on Aug. 28, 2,500 OB-GYN doctors in the country started a boycott on all abortions.Transactions are usually made online for the drugs, which are banned from being prescribed or sold in the country. When searching for an abortion pill on an online portal, roughly 10 links are shown that lead to the drug vendors and the cost can go up to 600,000 won ($540) a pill. The most typical abortive drug in the country is Mifegyne. The drug was developed by a French pharmaceutical company in 1988 and is sold in 61 countries around the globe including Germany, the U.S., England and Sweden.One of the sites used to sell around 40 Mifegyne pills before the doctors' boycott, but since then that number has nearl

Sep 28, 2018By Kim Hyun-bin

More women turn to illegal abortion drugs

Korea's number of childbirths continues to decline in July

The number of newborns in South Korea fell again in July, government data showed Friday, in the latest sign of the chronically low birthrate that has plagued Asia's fourth-largest economy for more than a decade.About 27,000 babies were born in July, down 8.2 percent from the 29,400 tallied a year earlier and the lowest for any July since such figures began to be compiled in 1981, according to data from Statistics Korea.In the first seven months of the year, the number of newborns fell 8.6 percent on-year to 198,700, official numbers showed.The number of childbirths per month has decreased on-year every month since December 2015.Last year, the number of newborns dropped to a record low despite concerted efforts to tackle the problem.The number of babies born in all of 2017 reached 357,771, down 11.9 percent, or 48,500, from a year earlier.That figure was the lowest number of newborns tallied since the statistics agency started to compile such data in 1970.The crude birthrate, which refers to the number of births per 1,000 people per year, also came to an all-time low of 7 last year, d

Sep 28, 2018

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