New Influenza A/H1N1 broke out in some areas of the DPRK amid the growing of its victims worldwide.
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A Korean-American aid group based in the United States said Thursday it was sending its 17th shipment of medical relief goods, worth US$4.8 million, to North Korea.
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Passengers are exposed to asbestos, a material that can cause cancer, when subway surfaces deteriorate and the material used for bonding them is released in the air.
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Kim Jong Hong, director of the Pyongyang City Hospital of Koryo Medicine.
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No-smoking campaign has been actively conducted in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. According to Choe Chang Sik, vice minister of Public Health, the smoking rate of the country went down by about 15 percent at present below 2000.
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A South Korean tourist visiting North Korea has given birth to a baby girl in the socialist country, a spokesperson for the tour organizer said Tuesday.
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A nation-wide campaign to prevent bird flu epidemic has been intensified in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under the unified guidance of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Committee as in different parts of the world.
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At the Kallimgil Polyclinic in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang, the medical workers are making a round of calls at homes of inhabitants.
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The eighth national exhibition of scientific and technical successes in public health is going on at the Three-Revolution Exhibition in Pyongyang.
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The Medical Genetics Institute of Pyongyang University of Medicine in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has concentrated efforts on treatment of hereditary diseases and protection and improvement of people’s lives.
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The Rason International Catholic Hospital has been built in Rason, an economic and trade zone of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It is a general medical service center donated by the International Cooperation of Catholic Medical Service (ICCMS) from the humanitarian purpose of helping promote the health of citizens.
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The Democratic Labor Party (DLP), jointly with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Korean Peasants League (KPL), has launched a movement that calls for free education and universal healthcare. A joint plan for action was agreed upon the 3 organizations during a representatives’ consultative meeting last month.
To mark the launch of the movement, the 3 organizations held a joint rally in downtown Seoul on the 1st day of June. About 1000 trade unionists, party activists, (...)
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The Democratic Labor Party(DLP), jointly with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU) and the Korean Peasants League(KPL), has launched a movement that calls for free education and universal healthcare. A joint plan for action was agreed upon the 3 organizations during a representatives’ consultative meeting last month.
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The Korea Koryo Pharmacy Center on Rakwon Street in Pyongyang, is a technological hub of the country for putting the production of Koryo medicine on a modern and scientific basis.
It, founded on June 3, 1992, covers a total floor space of nearly 3,000 square meters and has ten research rooms including Koryo medicine and production process ones. Some 20 percent of its staff members have academic degrees or titles.
Over the last years the center has developed various Koryo medicines. Among (...)
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Hyangyakjibsongbang (a medical encyclopedia), Uibangryuchi and Tonguibogam (the complete collection of traditional Korean medicine) are famous medical classics of Korea.
Hyangyakjibsongbang, which consists of 85 volumes, was published in 1433 by Ro Jung Rye and others. Compiled in the book is experience in treating diseases with traditional medicines.
It gives 10,700 prescriptions and 1,476 methods of acupuncture and moxibustion for 959 kinds of diseases in a systematic way - (...)
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Bird flu in North Korea has been successfully contained, the Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday.
The Rome-based agency said avian influenza had been found on three poultry farms near Pyongyang, but it pointed out the strain found on the farms were only harmful to chickens and not to humans.
Moreover, "the virus appears to have been eliminated from the three infected farms by combining culling of around 218,000 infected chickens, vaccination of unaffected birds in unaffected (...)
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A South Korean ship left for North Korea Saturday with US 713,000 worth of equipment and supplies aimed at helping the North contain a bird flu outbreak.
The ship left South Korea’s western port of Incheon and was due to arrive in the North’s western port of Nampo a day later, said officials at South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The items range from diagnosis kits, antiseptics, disinfectant sprayers to antiseptic-spraying vehicles, they said. The shipment was made at the request of North (...)
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Efforts to prevent bird flu are going on in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Ro Tu Chol, chairman of the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-Epizootic Committee, told KCNA that about 200 emergency committees have been formed and emergency vaccinations against bird flu applied to all poultry farms.
Chicken plants where bird flu broke out incinerated and buried affected chickens to suit the rules of the OIE, the France-based epizootic disease office.
Traffic around the plants is (...)
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North Korea on Friday thanked South Korea for its offer to help contain an outbreak of bird flu at three chicken farms in Pyongyang and requested that Seoul provide equipment and medical supplies, the Unification Ministry said.
South Korea’s National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service received a telephone call from its Northern counterpart, responding 10 days after Seoul first offered assistance.
"North Korea expressed appreciation and said it hoped the South will provide the (...)
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A bird flu outbreak in North Korea is unlikely to spread to humans, United Nations experts said Wednesday after a mission to the country.
The avian flu strain that has emerged in North Korea is probably H7, which is not capable of being transmitted to humans, according to analysis conducted by officials of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"It’s indirectly confirmed that it was H7, but we still have to conduct some laboratory analysis," said Noureddin Mona, the Beijing-based (...)
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North Korea, which has culled tens of thousands of chickens and clamped down on bird movements, may be able to contain its first suspected bird flu outbreaks on three farms, a top U.N. bird flu expert said.
"For the time being, everything indicates that it can be contained," Hans Wagner, a senior official with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, told Reuters by telephone from the North Korean capital Pyongyang on Friday.
Wagner said authorities have imposed strict controls on animal (...)
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Giving top priority to people’s health
Interview with Kim Gwang Ho, director of ministry of Land and Environmental Protection
The DPRK has taken measures on a nation-wide scale to reduce emissions of certain gasses alleged to contribute to a greenhouse effect. A senior official of the Ministry of Land Environmental Protection of the DPRK said that the country’s environmental protection policy also paid special attention to internationally pending issues.
According to Kim Gwang Ho, the (...)
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A dynamic work is now under way in different parts of the country to combat bird flu that plagues the world. The State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-Epizootic Committee has been organized to supervise the campaign.
According to members of the committee, bird flu has recently broken out at a few chicken farms including the Hadang Chicken Farm.
Upon its outbreak on those farms the committee lost no time to take emergency measures and meticulously organized veterinary and anti-epizootic work (...)
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The first dust storm this year was observed in Korea on March 17. With the advent of spring, activities to prevent possible yellow sand damage are being conducted in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The mild storm, churned up by winds in Gobi Desert of Mongolia and some Inner Mongolian areas of China on Wednesday, moved southeastward and reached the central part of the West Sea of Korea next morning.
Affected by the sand storm were Pyongyang and South Phyongan, North and South (...)
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Within the mountainous region of the Kayasan National Forest, in the city of Hapchon, several heads gaze from the huge corridor windows toward the peaceful scenery outside. Scattered around the inside room are a handful of senior citizens. At first glance this looks like an ordinary seniors center. But outside, a small building sets this place apart. It shelters hundreds of wooden stakes that bear names in Chinese. They are the names of Korean survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, who (...)
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The DPRK took measures to administer Vitamin A and Mebendasol to the children under five and inoculated them at ri (village) people’s hospitals, clinics and nurseries throughout the country on May 20 and November 20 this year, too. The resident UNICEF representative also took part in the vaccination.
For this purpose, medical officials of central and local public health institutions underwent technical trainings. And diversified medical activities were conducted for children’s health. (...)
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Investments in North Korea by Chinese companies based in Jilin Province have been growing, particularly and remarkably since August, according to trade officials of the provincial government.
The trend is related to North Korea’s increasing willingness to accept joint ventures with foreigners, the officials said. They noted that the willingness was well manifested in Pyongyang’s decision to expand the Mt. Kumgang tourism district to cover such places as Tongchon County and Wonsan City.
A (...)
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South Korean public health insurance covered only 44 percent of total medical bills in 2001 with the rest paid by individuals, recording the highest individual costs for medical fees among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Korea Insurance Development Institute (KIDI) said in the report the Korean government and people spent some 29.4 trillion won on medical costs in 2001. Korean individuals paid some 56 percent, while the rest was covered by medical (...)
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Hideaki Imaizumi, a pioneer in Japan’s in vitro fertilization program, said Thursday that North Korea’s first test-tube baby was born in June through medical equipment and know-how he gave to a North Korean hospital.
Imaizumi, 58, was a member of the Tohoku University team that successfully achieved Japan’s first in vitro fertilization some 20 years ago. Imaizumi said when he visited Pyongyang to provide medical assistance in 1991, he learned that North Korea had numerous people faced (...)
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Silver salt, which was highly appreciated at the 8th National Exhibition of Inventions and New Technology, is drawing interest of people. The water-disinfecting edible salt is made with silver chloride and salt. When it is dissolved in water, it discharges silver (Ag) ion. The silver ion kills various kinds of virus including colitis, cholera, paratyphoid fever and typhoid germs, and disinfects and purifies the water.
One gram of silver salt contains five milligrams of argentums, and (...)
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Natural aroma goods made by the Pyongyang Essential Oils Research Centre (e-mail:ksttc@co.chesin.com) are popular among users.
Chongsong (pine), Jinung (intellectual) and Wisaeng (hygienic) perfumes which are extracted from natural plants abundant in Korea provide clean environment and has a good effect on human body for their fresh and fragrant aroma.
Chongsong perfume extracted from needle-leaf trees including pine gives off fresh resin aroma. It removes mould and other unpleasant smell (...)
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Korea has diverse natural environment with both continental and oceanic features as it is located in the east of Asian continent facing the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks to these favourable natural and geographical advantages, our country has a large stock of specialities which enjoy growing demand on the world market.
Kaesong Koryo insam (ginseng) is the best of Korean specialities. Koryo insam cultivated in Kaesong endowed with favourable soil, water and climatic conditions for insam (...)
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The physical strength check-up is now in swing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It has been conducted as an annual event in the country since 1948.
The government has set August and September as physical strength examination months. The nationwide campaign is aimed to make the whole society replete with an atmosphere of making physical culture and sports mass-based and encourage the people to improve their physical fitness and prepare themselves well for labour and national (...)
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The number of suicides reached a record high in 2003 to become the fifth largest cause of death in South Korea, a government report said Wednesday.
The 2003 mortality statistic by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that 24 out of 100,000 people committed suicide last year. This is a 2.3-fold increase compared to 10.6 people per 100,000 men and women who took their lives in 1993.
30 people taking their own lives every day
The office said that 4.4 per cent or 11,000 out of a total (...)
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The average South Korean woman gives birth to 1.41 children, far less than the world’s average of 2.92, according to a report published by the United Nations Population Fund on Wednesday.
The global organization announced a report "The Cairo Consensus at Ten: Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty," which assesses the world’s population changes for last 10 years since the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994.
According (...)
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Ryongchon College of Agriculture in the DPRK took place on September 1 amidst the blessing of people. These schools were most seriously destroyed when there was a sudden explosion of two wagons at Ryongchon Railway Station on April 22.
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Mineral water resources have been developed extensively to promote people’s health in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The government took measures to organize special spa prospecting teams and carry on the survey of mineral water resources in a systematic and deep-going way. Activities are being conducted to develop and use efficacious natural resources.
As a result, many spas and mineral water resources have been prospected across the country and their ingredients and efficacy (...)
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The Korean Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment Centre was opened with due ceremony in Callao, Peru, on July 13.
Mayor Alexander Kouri in his speech expressed his deep thanks to the DPRK government for sending competent doctors of Koryo Medicine to the city.
Referring to the fact that the friendly city relations were established between the city and Nampho City in the DPRK during his visit to the DPRK, he said that while touring its different parts he was deeply impressed by the creative (...)
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Though the overall numbers are small, statistics from a government-run health bureau show a sharp increase in the number of HIV-positive or AIDS-infected patients in South Korea.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced yesterday that its investigations showed that 302 Korean nationals had contracted the disease during the first half of this year, a 20.3 percent jump from the same period last year.
Men accounted for most of the new patients at 92 percent. All 155 (...)
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The Hamhung Prostheses Factory for Disabled Soldiers is working hard to provide better service to the disabled in close cooperation with Handicap International.
Since Handicap International started its humanitarian activities in the DPRK in 2001, its members have taken an active part in technical training, joint manufacture of prostheses and joint treatment for recovery.
HI has donated funds and facilities for the manufacture of prostheses and is now building a base for the production of (...)
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Pine needle has been used as material of health foodstuffs from ancient times in Korea.
According to "Hyangyakjipsongbang" (a medical encyclopedia) published in the 15th century in Korea, pine needle prevents aging, invigorates spirits and turns grey hair to black.
The Korean people have used pine needles in steaming rice-cake and curing various diseases. The Natural Health Foodstuff Company under the Ministry of Forestry developed a pine needle tea last year through deep study of (...)
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"To me it seems like a dream that I received warm care repeatedly at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. I was taken to the hospital after I was diagnosed to have triplets. From the first day there, I received all kinds of treatment in a well-furnished room for 120 days, and was delivered of the triplets for the second time.
"The babies tended in incubators remind me of many things. They were in a critical condition at birth, and I myself was almost hopeless. But the doctors and nurses at (...)
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Several patients, who had been deadly injured by the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station, have miraculously resuscitated at the Kim Man Yu Hospital in Pyongyang. They were at critical conditions on May 12 when they were brought to the hospital.
At that time Kim Myong Song, 14, was suffering from brain contusion, cranial bones fracture, hepatorrhexis, pronephros bruise, blood poisoning and respiratory insufficiency. His breathing had ceased in the plane.
Han Chol, 9, was also badly hurt (...)
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The Pharmacopoeia Compilation Committee has published "Pharmacopoeia of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea"(sixth edition).
It consists of part one (Koryo Medicine), part two (Modern Medicine) and appendix. It gives 1,417 kinds of medicines, 156 of which are new entries.
Part one deals with Koryo medicines and their manufature, biological medicines, universal method of test and effects, usage and dosage of Koryo medicines.
Given in part two are ingredients, indication and effects (...)
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The South Korean National Red Cross (KNRC) has reached an agreement with its North Korean counterpart to modernize hospitals in the North.
KNRC president Lee Yoon-goo, fresh from his visit to Ryongchon, said at a press briefing in Incheon International Airport on Tuesday that the relief agency will help North Korea modernize its hospitals by sending medical equipment as early as next week at Pyongyang’s request.
The North is expected to finish reconstructing the area of Ryongchon by (...)
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The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has joined the world-wide trend towards the building of a new world without tobacco in the new century.
Smoking has become one of the world’s serious problems as it endangers human existence, destructs the ecological environment of nature and gives great damage to the socio-economic activities.
The DPRK government has fully encouraged the no-smoking campaign to prevent all the sufferings from smoking and to provide people with an independent and (...)
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At least twelve North Korean doctors are since last week in Mbanza Congo city, north-western Zaire province, in the ambit of the medical-aid improvement programme for the local population, said today the provincial health director, Jose Pedro Augusto. The physicians who will be working in various municipalities of the province are specialised on peadiatrics, internal medicine, among other fields including, laboratory, radiology, surgery and anaesthesia.
(Angolapress, April 1, (...)
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