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| A photo carried on The Korea Times edition of Sept. 24, 1963 / Courtesy of The Korea Times archive |
By Matt VanVolkenburg
Efforts to prevent a disease "from invading this country," The Korea Times reported, "have been intensified by public health officials" in "sanitation, vaccination, and quarantine works at all ports and airports. Vaccinations will be given to all passengers and port workers" from a stockpile of 378,000 doses distributed to the nation's ports by the health ministry. Passengers from abroad found to be lacking valid vaccinations were to be strictly controlled.
While this might sound like a headline taken from today's news, it describes Korea's successful attempt to stop a cholera outbreak in 1962.
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| cholera cartoon/Courtesy of The Korea Times archive |
Korea experienced its first outbreak of cholera in 1821 and suffered from at least a dozen serious outbreaks over the next 100 years, including two in 1919 and 1920 which collectively infected 41,000 people and killed over 25,000. The last outbreak of "classical" cholera was in 1946, during the chaotic post-liberation period, which killed more than two thirds of the 15,000 people who had been infected. Thereafter Korea was free from cholera until September 1963, when a new, less-severe variant of the disease spread throughout Asia.
Unlike in 1918, when, as Canadian missionary Frank Schofield put it, the "great influenza pandemic … spread from north to south along the line of the Southern Manchurian Railway," infectious diseases entered the country via seaports after the division of Korea.
The 1963 outbreak began in Busan. After spreading there for several days, the first case in Seoul prompted headlines like "Cholera Invades Seoul, Spreading Over Nation; Battle Group Formed." Still under military rule after Park Chung-hee's coup two years earlier, there was little concern about sharing the identities and addresses of the first Seoul residents to contract the disease.
Though Park had only agreed to hold elections that year under U.S. pressure, he did not use the outbreak as an excuse to postpone the presidential election scheduled for Oct. 15.
Newspaper headlines highlighted the rising number of infected and dead caused by the "sudden onslaught" of the "deadly epidemic," while editorials urged "greater sanitary vigilance on the part of the people" and urged them to "cooperate actively in the government drive to combat the killer disease."
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| A Sept. 24, 1963 report on cholera spread in the nation./Courtesy of The Korea Times archive |
As well, it was reported that containment efforts were "severely affecting the lives of people." The closure of Busan port and a ban on selling fish left thousands of day-laborers and fishermen out of work, while in 36 neighborhoods in Busan placed under quarantine the residents were not allowed to leave their homes. Schools were also closed across the nation.
The country initially only had enough vaccines for 1 million people. Though within days 460,000 people had been vaccinated in Busan, plans to vaccinate 4.5 million more people in the next two weeks required aid from abroad.
Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. sent vaccine supplies. As well, U.S. Navy Captain Robert Phillips, a well-known cholera expert, was invited by the Korean government to work with health officials in Busan and treat patients. When he departed two weeks later, he praised Korea for its "systematic and well-coordinated" response. He also blunted local criticism of Korean health officials for not stopping the outbreak at its outset by explaining that the milder nature of the new "El Tor" strain of cholera made it more difficult to detect.
Seeking answers about the outbreak, a quarantine team from Seoul National University examined 20,000 Busan residents over an 11-day period. It discovered the outbreak had begun over a week earlier than first suspected and also determined the invasion route: crew members of four vessels from Southeast Asia who docked without undergoing examinations.
Despite the furor over the epidemic, the outbreak lasted just over a month. According to official statistics 414 people were infected and 36 died. Despite suffering through this epidemic, however, the government cut its cholera prevention budget for the next year.
Luckily, an outbreak in the Incheon area in 1964 was contained quickly. The same was not true in 1969, when the country found itself without enough vaccines; over 1,500 people were infected and 137 people died. Though there have been a handful of small outbreaks since, quick containment and treatment have prevented cholera-related deaths for the past three decades.
Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr.
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