Group calls for bigger role in tackling TB in NKorea

Kim Tong-hyung, Associated Press

Updated

9:08 pm PST, Thursday, November 15, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – U.S.-based nonprofit group for tuberculosis crisis in North Korea, says it has undergone a U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile program.

Stephen Linton, chairman of the Eugene Bell Foundation, on Friday criticized Seoul's failure to help patients gain access to North Korea. He said that he is failing North Korea, which is actively pushing exchanges with North Korea to improve relations between the United States and the United States. missiles.

"This is an airborne disease that can be exchanged in any space in South Korean and North Korean people meet," said Linton, who spoke in Korean during a conference in Seoul. "There is a house on fire, but it is a case of tuberculosis that kills people within several months, like Ebola does, but tuberculosis kills slowly, taking three to five years. "

Tuberculosis is one of North Korea's biggest health problems. According to the World Health Organization, about 107,000 cases of tuberculosis were reported in North Korea in 2017, resulting in about 16,000 deaths.

Linton said the efforts to fight tuberculosis in North Korea have been dealt a heavy blow when the Geneva-based nonprofit Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported in North Korea, a decision he believed was at least partially connected to penalties-related pressure. The U.S. government, which pledged $ 1.4 billion this year, is one of the biggest donors to the Global Fund.

While Eugene Bell Foundation is focused on treating North Korean patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which develops after 18 months to treat, the Global Fund has treated both regular tuberculosis and MDR-TB patients.

Choi Seemoon, a Eugene Bell director, said Global Fund's failure could have caused the crisis through increased infections caused by patients who are forced to reduce or go off their medications prematurely. Many of these patients can become multidrug resistant, she said.

While the Bell and Global Fund have provided MDR-TB medications to about 2,000 patients this year, that's less than 30 percent of the estimated 8,000 North Koreans with the condition, she said. Global Fund's stock of regular tuberculosis medicine will be released in early 2020, while its stock of MDR-TB medicine can only cover patients registered by the autumn of this year, she said.

"Global Fund," said Choi said. "Whether the issue is resolved through inter-Korean talks or international non-governmental channels, there should be a quick delivery of tuberculosis medicine to North Korea regardless of what channel it takes."