North and South Korea agree to collaborate on infectious diseases

North and South Korea have reached an agreement on creating measures to combat infectious diseases – singling out tuberculosis and malaria as the focus of their efforts.

They have also pledged to work together on diagnosis, prevention and treatment of illnesses in both countries.

The agreement was concluded when Kwon Deok-cheol, the South Korean vice minister of health, crossed the Demilitarised Zone that has divided the Korean Peninsula since the end of the three-year Korean War in 1953 for talks with his counterpart from Pyongyang, Park Myong-su.

The two officials met at the recently reopened joint liaison office in the city of Kaesong for the first discussions between the two governments on health matters in 11 years.

The agreement to cooperate in the fight against communicable diseases is part of a wider series of agreements between Seoul and Pyongyang designed to build bridges between the two former enemies and reinforce trust across the world’s most heavily fortified border.

In a statement, the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare said the two governments had agreed to establish a pilot programme before the end of the year for “information exchange and response mechanisms to stop the importation and spread of infectious disease outbreaks”.

In addition to exchanging information about outbreaks of disease, the two governments’ health authorities plan to share technological advances – although this is likely to mean the South providing the North’s dilapidated hospitals with modern medical equipment – and exchanges between medical professionals.

The two sides also agreed to collaborate on joint healthcare projects and specified tuberculosis and malaria as the focus of their initial efforts.

North Korean healthcare officials have described tuberculosis as the biggest threat to the well-being of the nation’s public, with an increasing number of patient testing positive for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

“North and South Korea are actually very close and mosquitoes and other insects carrying viruses can always cross the border”, The Korean Herald quoted Mr Kwon  as saying.

Malaria is uncommon but not unknown in the northern provinces of South Korea between March and December, with the relatively untouched land within the Demilitarised Zone offering grassland, marshes and ponds that serve as ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Several thousand cases of a non-lethal strain of the illness are reported in the South every year, while the figure to the North of the 2.5-mile-wide, 160-mile long DMZ is likely to be higher as North Koreans have less access to mosquito repellent and screens for doors and windows.

According to statistics provided by the World Health Organization, North Korea spent less on health care per capita than any other country as recently as 2009, working out at significantly less than GBP1 per person.

 Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security