Scarlet Fever Outbreak in N Korea

[Velokid1]

Report: Scarlet fever spreads in N.Korea

Wed Nov 15, 6:43 AM ET



Scarlet fever has been spreading in North Korea and threatens to become a full-blown epidemic despite efforts by authorities to contain the disease, a news report said Wednesday.

The disease, which broke out in the North's northern Ryanggang Province last month, is rapidly spreading to other parts of the communist state, including the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said they didn't have information to confirm the media report.

Lack of medicine coupled with poor sanitary conditions are to blame for the rapid spread of the fever in the impoverished communist country, leading to the deaths among the aged and infants, Yonhap said.

Kwon Joon-wook, a South Korean CDC official, said scarlet fever "could be easily treated with antibiotics but it could become a problem" in a country like North Korea, which suffers from a lack of medicine.

Scarlet fever is a rash typically seen in children younger than 18, caused by the same bacteria related to strep throat, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The germs carrying scarlet fever are found in the mouth and nasal fluid, and it is spread by people sharing drinks or by someone with the infection touching another's mouth, eyes or nose.

[hambone]

Disease is a metaphor. Dis-ease, then creates tangible effects. Poor N. Korea, those people are really stuck....
What posesses all those tiny-weenie types throughout history to conquer and divide?? I guess I just don't get it. That, and folks with $1000 Rolexes tryin ta be all dat....how did they ever get past childhood? Mebbe they didn't...it would be interesting to study their childhoods. I know Hitler had a harsh one.

[Amskeptic]

Disease is a metaphor. Dis-ease, then creates tangible effects. Poor N. Korea, those people are really stuck....
What posesses all those tiny-weenie types throughout history to conquer and divide?? I guess I just don't get it. That, and folks with $1000 Rolexes tryin ta be all dat....how did they ever get past childhood? Mebbe they didn't...it would be interesting to study their childhoods. I know Hitler had a harsh one.

I think we are due for a pandemic, all of us travelling around and underfunding our health infrastructure.
Maybe my anti-social nature will serve me when flu bugs start getting the upper hand, I wilt rather exaggeratedly when anyone sneezes and am happy to avoid crowds.
Colin

[Velokid1]

Yes! I'd love to have an excuse for disliking being around people. Besides my social ineptitude, I mean.

[hambone]

Happy to avoid crowds says the man with "now at 521,730 miles"!
You probably have a whole nest of micro-crawlies hidin out in yer rig, picked up like hitchhikers across th' Democratica Republica de AMERIKAAA

[Amskeptic]

Happy to avoid crowds says the man with "now at 521,730 miles"!
You probably have a whole nest of micro-crawlies hidin out in yer rig, picked up like hitchhikers across th' Democratica Republica de AMERIKAAA

Based on fragrance in said rig, I did good. It is a fine bouquet of slight Chlorox, VW vinyl off-gassing, baby powder, carb cleaner, and that damn Mother's California Gold paste wax/cleaner which slowly leaked, homogenized by several 140* heat-soaks.
Some twigs from Rockies, some grass barbs from west Texas, three dead flies, one melted chocolate remnant from my Klondike problem, a light coating of dust from Nevada desert, and a wad of paper towel with an extinguished cigarette butt half crammed in a Diet Coke can from Garland Texas rounds out the menu for our little buggies
Colin

[glasseye]

Based on fragrance in said rig, I did good. It is a fine bouquet of slight Chlorox, VW vinyl off-gassing, baby powder, carb cleaner, and that damn Mother's California Gold paste wax/cleaner which slowly leaked, homogenized by several 140* heat-soaks.
Some twigs from Rockies, some grass barbs from west Texas, three dead flies, one melted chocolate remnant from my Klondike problem, a light coating of dust from Nevada desert, and a wad of paper towel with an extinguished cigarette butt half crammed in a Diet Coke can from Garland Texas rounds out the menu for our little buggies
Colin

Now I get it. You're working on a book, right? This Itinerant Consultant gig is just a ruse, an excuse to get out there.

[LiveonJG]

I think we are due for a pandemic
Colin

You nailed it there Colin. Overpopulation of this Mother Earth. Nature is self correcting, when a species' numbers exceed what they should be, the environment has subtle and not so subtle ways to re-establish balance. Stay tuned!
-John

[Velokid1]

I was saying this to a friend yesterday and he had a funny response. Edited for this forum, of course:

"Yeeeah, we're all f***ed. But they're f***ed first!!!!" LOL