N. Korea holds open meetings to discuss flu prevention

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has held open meetings nationwide to
discuss preventive measures against the spread of Influenza A, a Seoul-based aid
group said Sunday.
"A council meeting was held in each city or province with participants from the
health and education sectors, including municipal or provincial health officials,
hospital workers, heads of rural health centers and school principals," Good
Friends said in its online newsletter. "It was an occasion to publicly discuss
the new flu."
North Korea last week acknowledged for the first time that it has domestic cases
of Influenza A, raising international concern that the virus could spread rapidly
among its impoverished population.
The North said just nine people have contracted the H1N1 virus, though observers
speculate that the actual number of patients far exceeds the official figure.
North Korea also said it was willing to accept South Korea's offer of medical aid
in its fight against the highly infectious disease.
It is "rare" for North Korea to publicly discuss sensitive matters, Good Friends
said. "It would normally hold secret meetings between a small number of
officials."
According to the newsletter, concerns were voiced in the council meetings about
the possibility of social disorder with the onset of the flu, as "many people are
already suffering from malnutrition amid a famine."
"The North Korean ministry of health instructed people not to use Chinese
painkillers or North Korean aspirin," the aid group reported, saying there have
been some accidental deaths caused by fake medicine.
Those who developed any flu symptoms were forbidden to leave their homes, the
report said.
North Koreans from other parts of the country were prohibited from entering North
Hamgyeong province, which borders China, though it was not clear why. Some of the
H1N1 cases North Korea earlier reported were in the city of Sinuiju, also near
China but not in North Hamgyeong Province.
ygkim@yna.co.kr
(END)