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Quarantine. H1N1 Flu Affected Apartment Complex Closed up in Hamheung

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  • Quarantine. H1N1 Flu Affected Apartment Complex Closed up in Hamheung

    North Korea Today No. 327 Special Edition - Jan 2010
    Source: Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees

    Date: 25 Jan 2010



    Full_Report (pdf* format - 515,6 Kbytes)

    ["Good Friends" aims to help the North Korean people from a humanistic point of view and publishes "North Korea Today" describing the way the North Korean people live as accurately as possible. We at Good Friends also hope to be a bridge between the North Korean people and the world.]

    [Hot Topics]

    H1N1 Flu Affected Apartment Complex Closed up in Hamheung

    Emergency Disease Prevention Command Post of Hamheung City, South Hamgyong Province is in the process of quarantining and blocking H1N1 breakout areas including Sungchun River District. When confirmed positive of infection, quarantine measure is put in place whether it is the family of an official or a laborer. When there is a new H1N1 patient in apartment complexes, a guard stands at the entrance to stop the patient from going out. The flu broke out in densely populated residential areas including 24th and 29th units in Shinheung 1 dong, Sungchun River District, and the apartment complexes there sealed the entrances. They closed up the entrance doors of the four-story building with boards. It was intended to prohibit people inside from going out.

    Locked up all of a sudden, the households inside the blocked buildings are experiencing difficulties in living, running out of basic commodities and food. Particularly those residents who made daily living by trading are severely suffering. As such, City People's Assembly ordered Local Grain Policy Enterprise to secure food and the basic food factory to provide doenjang (fermented soybean paste), ganjang (soy sauce) and at least 3 lumps of anthracite every day for cooking and heating.

    Since the residents on the second and fourth floor cannot reach the ground floor, they are obtaining commodities by sending down burlap bags or buckets tied to a rope. Food and products are put on the ground floor and the residents pull the rope and unload them on the second floor. In addition, authorities specially made called '6 mansun' electricity available for the households using electric rice cooker and electric cooker.

    Authorities expected that blocking outside contact would stop spreading of the flu virus but the result was different. Although the minimum amount of food is being provided, larger families still fall short of food and residents get out from the building somehow. Citing that those incidents interrupt curtailing the flu epidemic, Hamheung City authorities are concentrating on more strict control on entering and exiting the buildings by mobilizing emergency disease prevention officials, police officers and security officers. Hygiene and Disease Prevention office seems to be at a loss to observe more flu infection occurring than expected despite the quarantine of whole apartment complexes. The most suffered are the residents quarantined without due dates. Residents deplores, "I have already been suffering because of the government measure (currency revaluation), and now we are stranded because of the infectious disease. What a terrible life!"

    Source: ReliefWeb
    News and Press Release in English on Democratic People's Republic of Korea about Epidemic; published on 25 Jan 2010 by Good Friends
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