North Korea is dealing with the emergence of a new contagious disease that has already spread to epidemic levels.
Digital Desk: North Korea reported the emergence of a new infectious disease on Thursday, in addition to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, and said that its leader, Kim Jong Un, has provided his personal medicines to those infected.
Although the severity of the new disease is unknown, some outside observers believe North Korea is attempting to polish Kim's image as a leader concerned about the welfare of the people, as he will require greater public support to overcome pandemic-related suffering.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), on Wednesday, Kim provided his family's reserve medicines to people afflicted with "an acute enteric outbreak" in southern Haeju.
Reportedly, a front-page photo of Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju inspecting saline solutions and other medicines they were donating was published separately in the North's major Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
KCNA did not elaborate on the outbreak or how many people have been afflicted till now.
Some commentators believe North Korea's "enteric epidemic" alludes to an infectious disease such as typhoid, dysentery, or cholera, which are intestinal ailments spread by germs through contaminated food and water or contact with sick people's waste.
Such infections are common in North Korea, which lacks adequate water purification facilities and has had a mostly shattered public healthcare infrastructure since the mid-1990s.
Following North Korea's acknowledgment of the coronavirus outbreak last month, South Korea's intelligence service said: that "a large percentage" of those fever cases included individuals afflicted with diseases like measles, typhoid, and pertussis.
"In North Korea, outbreaks of measles or typhoid are not unusual. "I believe there is an outbreak of the infectious disease there, but North Korea is exploiting it to show that Kim is concerned about his people," said Ahn Kyung-Su, the director of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website dedicated to North Korean health issues. "It's more of a political message than a medical message," says the author.
According to official media sources, Kim already supplied his family's drugs to Covid-19 sufferers last month.
According to KCNA, an unknown fever has sickened more than 4.5 million individuals out of the country's 26 million.
However, only 73 have perished due to an apparent lack of test kits in the country, and only a portion of those has been confirmed as coronavirus infections.
Many foreign experts doubt the North's death toll, claiming it is likely underreported to insulate Kim from political repercussions.
Kim stated at a ruling party meeting last week that the pandemic scenario has passed the "severe crisis" stage.
However, the country continues to impose tighter restrictions, which some analysts believe will put even more strain on the country's already ailing economy, which has been battered by long-running pandemic-related border closures and UN sanctions.
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