Agencies-Gaza post
North Korea fights COVID-19 with the traditional medicine
Lee Gwang-jin, a medical student said he treated his fevers with the normal herbal medicine. But bad illness leads to trouble in hospitals in his rural hometown which lacked from ambulances, beds, even the electricity at times needed to treat critical or emergency patients.
Lee was worried about the recent reports in north Korea which said “Koryo” traditional medicine is playing a key role in the nation’s for fighting the COVID-19, that has killed millions of people.
The medicine, which the state says, is curing its sick people is used as a political symbol. Experts said, it will eventually allow the country to say its leaders have beaten the outbreak, where other nations have repeatedly failed.
The state media share stories about how good the medicine is and the huge production efforts to make more of it, many ask if people suffering from severe disease can get the treatment they need.
Defectors know North Korea is mobilizing Koryo medicine due to it doesn’t have enough modern medicine to fight COVID-19.
after two months, North Korea admitted its first coronavirus outbreak, and reported that a week ago the average of 157 fever cases each day, a momentous drop from the peak of about 400,000 a day in May. It maintains a widely disputed claim that only 74 out of about 4.8 million fever patients have died, a fatality rate of 0.002% that would be the world’s lowest if true.
in spite of the worries widespread outside about the truth of North Korea’s news, there are no signs that the outbreak has caused catastrophe there. North Korea may then emphasize the role of Koryo medicine as the reason.
North Korea fights COVID-19 with the traditional medicine
North Korea officially incorporated Koryo medicine in its public healthcare system in the 1950s. since the mid-1990s, its importance has sharply grown by the time of being suffering of a big shortage of modern medicine during a crippling famine and economic turmoil that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Koryo refers to herbal concoctions that sometimes include animal parts, acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion and meridian massages. whereas in many countries traditional and modern medicines operate independently, North Korea has combined them.
Kim Jieun said she majored in Koryo medicine at school in the North but eventually worked as a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor. She added that South Koreans in general used traditional medicine to preserve or improve their health, but North Koreans use it to treat diverse diseases.
some experts predicted that the COVID-19 outbreak could cause dire consequences in North Korea because about 40% of its people are reportedly undernourished. They speculate that North Korea is likely underreporting its death count to prevent political damage to Kim Jong Un not because of the Koryo.
