By Yi Whan-woo
Over 110,000 North Koreans are infected with a potentially deadly strain of flu, raising concerns that it may have spread to South Korea following cross-border visits of the delegations in preparation for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics that start this week.
Citing North Korea's Ministry of Public Health, an International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) official said last week the country documented 179,259 individuals with flu-like symptoms and 110,015 confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) as of Jan. 23.
Gwendolyn Pang, who oversees IFRC operations in East Asia, said the number of H1N1-infected patients increased from 81,640 on Jan. 16. She said H1N1, also known as swine flu as it is endemic in pigs, has spread across North Korea, with Pyongyang accounting for 29 percent of the cases in the outbreak.
Four flu-related deaths — one an adult and three children under the age of five — have been reported.
Pang said the IFRC is preparing to launch emergency aid for North Korea.
"For now, we are in the process of approving $350,000 (in aid). ... Our focus will be on community sensitization, and messaging in the community and health centers to ensure the early detection and prevention of influenza," she said during an interview with Voice of America. "The majority of the component of what we are going to do is hygiene promotion and health education."
The seasonal influenza outbreak took place in early January while the two Koreas held cross-border talks and delegate visits ahead of the North's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Last week, South Korean skiers entered the North for a joint training session with North Korean athletes at the Masikryong Ski Resort. Meanwhile, the second and final batch of 22 North Korean athletes arrived in the South last week, after the country's 12 women's ice hockey team players came here Jan. 25 to create a unified Olympic team with the South Korean women's hockey team.
Ministry of Unification spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said Seoul will continue "to monitor trends in the North Korean flu outbreak."
"And I will do my best to be more thorough about quarantine (contingencies) in relation to the North Korean people's visits and our visits to North Korea," he said.
The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that both the IOC and the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games "are liaising closely with the World Health Organization and local public health authorities who are following the outbreak."
