TB Incidence Higher Among North Koreans Living in South Korea Than Among Native South Koreans, Report Says

The incidence of tuberculosis among North Koreans who have gone to live in South Korea is more than 30 times higher than it is among native South Koreans, according to a health report that was declassified recently, Yonhap News reports. The report, published by the government-sponsored Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, found that 2,052 out of every 100,000 North Koreans living in South Korea had TB in 2005, while TB incidence for South Koreans was 64 cases per 100,000 people. Despite the high rate of TB among North Koreans in South Korea, "there are no appropriate health quarantine protocols established for them," Hwang Na-mi, the report's head researcher, said. The South Korean government in February said that more than 100,000 North Koreans have moved to South Korea since the Korean War in the early 1950s. The report made recommendations to strengthen health-related infrastructure in the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea, where an estimated 81,730 South Koreans and 238,000 North Koreans are expected to be living by 2009 (Yonhap News, 4/17).