귀순한 북괴군병사 뱃속에 기생충이 가득,60여년전 남한을 보는듯, 담당의사도 놀라.

탈출한 북괴군 병사의 총상을 수술했던, 담당의사의 발표에 따르면, 뱃속에는 기생충으로 가득차 있었다고 한다.  그뉴스를 보면서, 60여년전 국민학교, 중학교 다닐때, 학교에서 주기적으로 나누어 주었던 "회충"약을 먹고, 변으로 나온 회충을 종이에 싸서, 학교로 반납하라고 해서, 난리법석을 피웠던 기억이 났다.

지금의 북한내에서 삶의 환경은 60여년전의, 남한에서 보릿고개를 넘기에 힘겨워 했던, 그시절과 똑 같다는 생각이 확실하게 들었다. 그렇게 어려웠던 때를 극복하고 오늘의 풍부한 한국에서 국민들이 살수 있도록 여건은 그냥 만들어진게 아니라는것을, 젊은이들은 마음속으로 부터 깊이 깨달았으면.... 그리고 인생 선배님들에 대한 고마움도 표하고, 살아가는데 어려움이 닥쳐도, "Hell Chosun"이라는 극단적인 표현을 좀 삼갔으면 참으로 좋겠다.

기생충들, 그중에서도 회충들은 아직도 북한내에서는 전국민들이 뱃속에 지니고 살아가는것으로 보인다.
어쨋던 그러한 사회적 현상은 분뇨를 비료로 사용하여 가꾼 채소를 익히지 않고 먹는 많은 개발도상국가에서 흔히 나타나는 사회적 현상이라고 한다.  이렇게 먹을것도 없는 북한 사회의 동포들이 어렵게 목에 넘긴 음식물이 목을 타고 위속으로 들어가면서 부터 다시 그곳에서 뱃속에서 기생하고 있는 기생충들에게 다빼앗기고 있다니.....  

북한정부는 이러한 병사들의 건강상태가 외부에 알려지는것을 무척 꺼려하고 있다. 그렇게 삶의 환경이 열악한 북한사회의 실상이 알려지 는것을 두려워 하고 있기 때문이라고 한다.

북한 병사의 뱃속에 기생충이 득시글 거린다는 뉴스는 지금 전세계 서방세계를 놀라게 하고 있고, BBC의 기사를 여기에 옮겨 놓았다.

 A North Korean soldier who was shot while fleeing across the border has an extremely high level of parasites in his intestines, his doctors say.

The defector crossed the demilitarised zone on Monday, but was shot several times by North Korean border guards.

Doctors say the patient is stable - but "an enormous number" of worms in his body are contaminating his wounds and making his situation worse.

His condition is thought to give a rare insight into life in North Korea.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician," South Korean doctor Lee Cook-jong told journalists, explaining that the longest worm removed from the patient's intestines was 27cm (11in) long.

What does it tell us about N Korea's standards of health? 

"North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems," Prof Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul told the BBC. 

"North Korea does not have the resources to have a modern medical system," he says. "Its doctors are relatively poorly trained and have to work with primitive equipment."

In 2015 South Korean researchers studied the health records of North Korean defectors who had visited a hospital in Cheonan between 2006 and 2014.

They found that they showed higher rates of chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, tuberculosis and parasite infections, compared to South Koreans.

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"I don't know what is happening in North Korea, but I found many parasites when examining other defectors," Professor Seong Min of Dankook University Medical School was quoted by the Korea Biomedical Review as saying.

But Prof Lankov points out that compared with other countries with a similar per capita income - like Bangladesh or many African countries - the population in North Korea is healthier than one would expect. The country's life expectancy is well above average considering the level of economic poverty, he says.

Are the parasites endangering the soldier?

Yes. Considering that he is already in a critical condition, they are making a bad situation much worse. 

The soldier was shot at least six times when North Korean border guards opened fire on him as he ran across the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom to the South Korean side. 

The young soldier was rushed by helicopter to a hospital in South Korea and has undergone emergency surgery.

Doctors say there is a severe contamination of the wounds by both parasites and faeces. 

"We are paying close attention to prevent possible complications," surgeon Lee Cook-jong told reporters, explaining that "an enormous number of parasites" including roundworms had been found in the small intestine. 

How do you get a parasite? 

Humans can get parasites through eating contaminated food, by being bitten by an insect or by the parasite entering through the skin. 

In the case of the North Korean defector, the first case is most likely. Parasites which enter the body via contaminated food are often worms. 

The soldier's food may have been contaminated because the North still uses human faeces as fertiliser, known as "night soil". 

Lee Min-bok, a North Korean agriculture expert, told Reuters: "Chemical fertiliser was supplied by the state until the 1970s. By the 1990s, the state could not supply it any more, so farmers started to use a lot of night soil instead."

If these faeces are untreated and fertilise vegetables that are later eaten uncooked, the parasites get into the mouth and the intestines of the person. 

While some don't cause any severe symptoms, others can be life-threatening, explains Prof Peter Preiser from the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 

"What they all do is take nutrients away from your body," he told the BBC. "So [even] if most of them might go unnoticed, they all indicate a poor health status. To put it simply: people who have parasites are not healthy."

If the intestines are disrupted and parasites are released into the body cavity, they can be a lot more dangerous and much more complicated to treat. 

Also, he is likely to have had the parasites for a long time. This means "that patient will generally be in a weaker state so any wounds and surgery will become more dangerous," explains Prof Preiser. 

Is this a problem particular to North Korea? 

Parasites, especially worms, are thought to be widespread in North Korea. However, they also affect many developing countries where diets include uncooked vegetables fertilised with faeces. 

There are ways to treat faeces so they can be used as a safe fertiliser, but many poor countries neglect to do so. Prof Lankov says this seems to be the case in North Korea.

The poor health and nutrition has widespread consequences "but North Korea does not admit this because they fear this will affect their image too much".

Should there ever be a reunification of the two Koreas though, there would be massive health problems for officials to deal with for decades to come, Prof Lankov warns.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42021373

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/11/17/2017111701645.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/asia/north-korea-soldier/?iid=ob_mobile_article_footer_expansion