N Korea 'has no Aids'

2004-12-02 08:42

Seoul - North Korea has no cases of Aids and has adopted a plan to block infiltration of the killer syndrome from outside the country, a top Pyongyang health official said, according to a report monitored on Thursday.

The assertion was made by Choe Ung-Jun, head of the Ministry of Public Health's sanitary inspection agency in an interview with the December edition of Korea Today, a Pyongyang English-language Internet magazine.

"In our country there is no Aids patient," Choe was quoted as saying. "But activities for Aids prevention and control are being conducted to prevent its infiltration from the outside."

"In the DPRK (North Korea) a national Aids strategic plan (2003-2007) was mapped out ... and its own specific conditions and Aids prevention work is now effectively under way."

Gloomy predictions

Choe said an education campaign was alerting North Koreans to the threat of Aids, while experts were being trained in treating it and medical equipment including testing methods was available.

The interview took place to mark World Aids Day on Wednesday and coincided with the publication by the United Nations of a gloomy report on the impact of the deadly disease.

The United Nations report says more than 23 million people have died since Aids first emerged in 1981. An estimated 3.1 million will have died in 2004, the highest toll in any single year.

The HIV virus that causes Aids is known to wreck the human immune system, leaving the body exposed to infection by other viruses and bacteria.

The magazine Korea Today is an English monthly run by a North Korean internet portal Naenara.

- AFP