"N. Korea health system in deplorable shape, report says; Rights group hears bleak tales from defectors" by Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press | July 16, 2010
SEOUL — North Korea’s health care system is in shambles with doctors sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat, and power, a human rights watchdog said yesterday.
North Korea’s state health care system has been deteriorating for years amid the country’s economic difficulties. Many of its 24 million people reportedly face health problems related to chronic malnutrition, such as tuberculosis and anemia, Amnesty International said in a report on the state of the health care system.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: North Korea's Gnawing Hunger
Great. They are sick and starving.
Korea: Meals or Missiles?
You see what the U.S. is ending them, right?
A 24-year-old defector from northeastern Hamkyong province told Amnesty that a doctor amputated his left leg from the calf down without anesthesia after his ankle was crushed by a moving train when he fell from one of the cars.
“Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving. I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain,’’ said the man, identified only by his family name, Hwang. “I woke up one week later in a hospital bed.’’
The report was based on interviews with more than 40 North Koreans who have defected, mostly to South Korea, as well as organizations and health care professionals who work with North Koreans. Amnesty researchers did not have access to North Korea, one of the world’s most closed countries.
There was no immediate reaction from North Korea, which is sensitive to outside criticism and usually responds through its state-controlled media, though sometimes days or even weeks later.
I know how they feel with the tardiness of media.
The World Health Organization’s director noted malnutrition was a problem in North Korea when she visited in April, the first such trip to the country since 2001.
But Margaret Chan, who refused to be accompanied by foreign reporters on her visit, also praised the isolated regime for providing universal health coverage and said programs like one for child immunizations and its response to a malaria resurgence make it the envy of many other developing countries.
That is because the WHO VIEWS IT as an EXCELLENT MODEL for GLOBAL GOVERNMENT!!!
Yup, they LOVE tho$e VACCINATION$, don't they?
But they are LOOKING OUT for YOUR HEALTH!
In its report, Amnesty raised questions about whether coverage really is universal, noting most interviewees said they or a family member had given doctors cigarettes, alcohol, or money to receive medical care.
Doctors often work without pay, have little or no medicine to dispense, and reuse scant medical supplies, the report said.
“People in North Korea don’t bother going to the hospital if they don’t have money because everyone knows that you have to pay for service and treatment,’’ a North Korean defector named Rhee, 20, was quoted as saying. “If you don’t have money, you die.’’
Oh, so THEIR SYSTEM is JUST LIKE YOURS, Americans!!!
Many interviewees said they had to walk as long as two hours to get to a hospital for surgery, said Norma Kang Muico, an Amnesty researcher and author of the report.
North Koreans are numbed to what was wrong with the health system, because “things keep progressively getting worse, or even staying the same but at that low level,’’ Muico told reporters in Seoul yesterday.They sound just like average Americans.
--more--"
And when it is the WHO squaring off against AI what is the best thing to do?
As in all things I find in my newspaper, the answer is trust no one.
Not in there.
"N. Korea health care report faces criticism" by Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press | July 17, 2010
GENEVA — The World Health Organization found itself in the strange position yesterday of defending North Korea’s health care system from an Amnesty International report, three months after WHO’s director described medicine in the totalitarian state as the envy of the developing world.
NOT STRANGE if you look at it the way I do.
They LOVE the MODEL for GLOBAL GOVERNMENT!
GREAT CARE for the crust like the sick leader, and s*** for the rest of us.
WHO spokesman Paul Garwood insisted he was not criticizing Amnesty’s work, but the public relations flap illustrated an essential quandary for aid groups in states with repressive regimes: how to help innocent people without playing into the hands of their leaders.
Amnesty’s report on Thursday described North Korea’s health care system in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat, and power.
It also raised questions about whether coverage is universal as it — and WHO — asserted, noting most interviewees said they or a family member had given doctors cigarettes, alcohol, or money to receive medical care. And those without any of these reported that they could get no health assistance at all.
Garwood said Thursday’s report by Amnesty was mainly anecdotal, with stories dating back to 2001, and not up to the UN agency’s scientific approach to evaluating health care.
“All the facts are from people who are not in the country,’’ Garwood said. “There is no science in the research.’’ First ClimateGate and now this!
Is there ANY MSM or GOVERNMENT INSTITUTION that can be believed?
Sam Zarifi, head of Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific program, said the group stood by its findings. “We certainly have a lot of restrictions in terms of working in North Korea, but we did our best in terms of capturing the information we could verify,’’ he said.
Did you find weapons?
Oh, sorry, different area of suffering.
