North Korea Issues an SOS as an Unnamed Disease Affects 350k People

North Korea Issues an SOS as an Unnamed Disease Affects 350k People – Metronews247
As an unknown disease spreads to 350k people, North Korea issues an SOS.

As an unknown disease spreads to 350k people, North Korea issues an SOS. North Korea is “sending out SOS” after admitting that an unnamed disease had spread to 350,000 people.

Specialists are concerned that because this is the first time Kim Jong Un has been seen wearing a face mask in public, the COVID virus will spread quickly throughout the country’s 26 million citizens.

According to North Korea’s state media, the recently revealed COVID-19 outbreak in the country may have already infected hundreds of thousands of people in the last month.

The Voice of Korea, the country’s international broadcasting service, reported on Friday that a “obscure febrile disease has been explosively transmitted and extended on a statewide scale since late April, producing more than 350,000 folks in a fever in a short period of time.” “An unusual febrile ailment has been explosively spread and extended on a statewide scale since late April,” according to the article’s quote.

Although the study did not indicate explicitly that COVID was to blame for the widespread infections, scientists believe it was an implicit acknowledgment that the virus had spread throughout the secluded country of 25.8 million people. Prior to this week, the country’s administration denied any verified cases of the disease and turned down vaccine offers.

“It’s not likely to be other viruses,” said Jacob Lee, an infectious diseases professor at Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital in South Korea, who spoke with VICE World News about the current outbreak. “Hundreds of thousands of people have symptoms.” COVID-19 has been identified as the only respiratory virus with the potential to become widespread at this time. IOM is looking for a Radiologic Technologist in Lagos.

Although it is believed that 162,200 people have recovered completely, more than 18,000 “persons in a fever” were freshly reported on Thursday alone, indicating that the virus is rapidly spreading. On the same day, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made the first statement of a COVID epidemic and ordered a nationwide lockdown. He did not say how many persons were infected with the virus, though.

Additional information was given on Friday, including the fact that over 187,800 people had been quarantined and that six people who had been exhibiting fever symptoms had died; one of these people tested positive for the BA.2 Omicron strain of COVID.

Kim Jong Un, according to the source, “seriously pointed out that the febrile fever has happened simultaneously in several regions with the capital circle as the center, demonstrating that there is a flaw in the anti-epidemic system we have previously constructed.” “It shows that there is an imperfection in the anti-epidemic system we have previously constructed,” Kim Jong Un was quoted as adding.

If COVID caused the 350,000 episodes of fever, it means that the virus has infected a far larger number of North Koreans, maybe millions, but the cases have gone unnoticed due to a lack of testing and symptoms. This would be a significant development.

“Think about what happened in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak, when no one had ever gotten sick there before.” The strain currently circulating in North Korea, on the other hand, is five to six times more contagious than the Wuhan strain.

Since March, Shanghai, which has a population equivalent to North Korea’s and has tested the vast majority of its 26 million residents, has reported around 56,000 symptomatic cases and ten times more instances without symptoms.

Because it is uncertain whether or not the population of this country has received COVID vaccines, experts are afraid that the implications of an outbreak of this magnitude might be disastrous.

“Think about what happened in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak, when no one had ever gotten sick there before.” According to Lee, the current strain circulating in North Korea is five to six times more contagious than the Wuhan strain, and “the number of persons sick will swiftly climb.” There will almost certainly be a huge number of deaths because there are no well-nourished or vaccinated North Koreans. Russia declares war on NATO and demands that the West cease arms sales to Ukraine.

There’s a good chance it’ll end up being a tremendous disaster.

According to Lina Yoon, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, the outbreak would be exacerbated by the country’s poor health facilities and widespread hunger. The situation is “extremely frightening,” according to Yoon.

“The majority of North Koreans are chronically malnourished and unvaccinated, and the health infrastructure is incapable of dealing with this pandemic,” she said. “Only a few drugs are left in the country.” “The international community should provide medicine for COVID-19-related illnesses, antiviral medicines to treat COVID-19, vaccines, and all necessary infrastructure to preserve vaccines.”

North Korean authorities raised the country’s national quarantine measures to the “highest emergency” level following the finding of the BA.2 Omicron variant on Thursday. Previously, the administration has vehemently denied that there had been any confirmed cases of COVID in the country, assertions that have been widely dismissed by foreign experts.

Dr. Sojin Lim, a senior lecturer in North Korean Studies at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, believes that there were no cases of COVID-19 in North Korea previous to the recent pandemic. She mentioned Taiwan as an example, which had only reported a few cases prior to the Omicron pandemic.

“At the same time, we don’t know what’s really going on because the COVID test was not given to the entire populace; the COVID test was only given to Pyongyang residents,” he stated. “The COVID test was only administered to Pyongyang residents.”

Because North Korea’s COVID monitoring and response mechanisms are so woefully insufficient, it’s difficult to know the exact number of people who have been infected with the virus at this moment. Pyongyang’s two-year silence and unwavering confidence in COVID occurrences came to an abrupt end earlier this month. The epidemic was described as a “serious crisis” by the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Politburo, the party’s top decision-making body. Kim described the situation as a “public health calamity,” according to a story published by Voice of Korea on Friday.

“He stressed that reversing the current public health crisis at an early date, regaining the stability of the anti-epidemic campaign, and safeguarding the health and well-being of the people is the most significant challenge and supreme mission for our Party,” according to the story.

Following Kim Jong-rejection un’s of repeated proposals from the global COVAX program and other countries, North Korea is now one of only two countries in the world, along with Eritrea, that have not yet implemented COVID vaccines. The other country is Eritrea. A COVID breakout and lockdowns could have devastating consequences for people across the country. These variables, when combined with an already crippled medical system, a wrecked economy, and dwindling food and fuel supplies, might exacerbate the situation.

Pyongyang is well aware of this, and some experts believe the North Korean government is searching for help from other nations now that it has made the exceedingly rare public acknowledgment that an epidemic has happened within its borders.

“The fact that they revealed it themselves shows how serious it is; they wouldn’t have done so if it wasn’t that bad,” Lee remarked. “If it wasn’t that serious, they wouldn’t have revealed it.” “It’s almost as though they’re broadcasting a worldwide emergency alarm.” The situation must be substantially worse than what has been shown thus far.