United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA OFFICE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA DPR KOREA: SITUATION BULLETIN October November 2004 o. N 07/04 PREMIERE URGENCE – ANJU HOSPITAL · PREMIERE URGENCE Premiere Urgence. Rehabilitation of Anju Hospital Roof REHABILITATES ANJU ROOF Last year Premiere Urgence built a SARS isolation ward in Anju City Hospital (South Pyongan Province) and provided rehabilitation material and · WHO. EPILEPSY PILOT ward furniture to the hospital in May-June 2003 with ECHO funding. The PROJECT Anju City Hospital is a 600 bed structure built in 1975, covering a population of 245,000 people (mainly labourers). However, the bad · SCF-UK. PROGRAMME REVIEW condition of the roof of the hospital endangered the newly built SARS isolation ward, operating theatres and other parts of the building, as water was leaking through the walls after rain or snowfalls. Premiere Urgence, recognizing the urgency of repairing the roof of the hospital, presented a funding proposal to UN OCHA in order to solve the problem. Premiere FURTHER INFORMATION: Urgence made a deta iled assessment of the roof’s condition. The existing roofing of the hospital was made of galvanized iron sheets, as old as the Richard Ragan Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. hospital (about 30 years). These galvanized iron sheets had to be replaced Pyongyang with corrugated iron. Première Urgence implemented the rehabilitation Tel: +8502-3817-221 programme between September and the end of October. The total surface of Fax: +8502-3817-639 the hospital (3,194 m2) is now protected (88% is completely new; the E-Mail: [email protected] remaining 12% with rehabilitated sheeting). Around 20 m2 of slates were George Murray saved during the operations and are kept at the hospital in case of future Head of Office emergency needs. (See photographs on page 2). OCHA Pyongyang Tel: +8502-3817-490 Fax: +8502-3817-491 Premiere Urgence. Emergency distribution of Intravenous (IV) fluid consumables to the University Hospital in Pyongyang City. E-Mail: [email protected] During the night of the 7th August 2004, a fire completely destroyed the warehouse of the University hospital in Pyongyang. All the IV and medical Electronic copies of this Bulletin (Adobe consumables bought by Première Urgence for the hospital were lost in the Acrobat PDF format) can be obtained from www.humanitarianinfo.org/dprk or by e- fire, and medicines and wheelchairs belonging to the health facility were also mailing [email protected]. destroyed. The warehouse had a metallic structure with wooden walls and there was no chance to save any materials inside. The Ministry of Public Health immediately released an order to rebuild a new warehouse made of bricks and concrete with partitions, in order to better protect the equipment stored in the warehouse. Première Urgence realised that if the stocks of IV consumables were not replaced, the University hospital would have to go back to its old system of IV fluids production using recycled bottles. This would ruin the efforts of PU as a fully working production line is available and guarantees the quality of the IV fluids produced in the hospital. Première Urgence received help from UN OCHA in order to replace the lost quantities and re-establish normal working conditions and quality products. At that time, and in order to continue the production of IV fluids in the hospital, Première Urgence organized an emergency distribution using the storage of three other hospitals in DPR Korea. These hospitals are part of the network that Première Urgence has established in DPR Korea for IV fluids production using ECHO funding. Première Urgence is also implementing technical training for laboratory staff supported by ECHO regular programmes. A week long training and demonstrations started in December in Anju City Hospital (South Pyongan province). The same training will be implemented in the University Hospital in 2005. Training manuals have been translated into Korean and printed and distributed. United Nations, Munsudong, Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Situation Bulletin March 2004 Page 2 ANJU CITY HOSPITAL August 2004 October 2004 HEALTH AND NUTRITION WHO. Malaria control between DPRK, South Korea The epidemiology of the malaria outbreak on the Korean and China peninsula has many common features. The meeting WHO organized a meeting on vivax malaria in East Asia provided a unique opportunity for malaria experts from in Shanghai, China from 29 November to 2 December South and North Korea to discuss the control of malaria. 2004, as a follow up to a similar meeting organized last After a peak in 2001 with 300,000 reported cases, the year. National programme managers, country and WHO number of malaria cases in DPRK this year fell to 33,677 experts from PR China, DPRK and ROK participated in as of November 2004. This can be attributed to the control the Shanghai meeting. The meeting’s main objective was efforts carried out by the Ministry of Public Health to exchange information and discuss issues related to (MoPH) with the support of WHO and other interregional malaria control. Activities included a review of the current organizations. South Korea has been the main donor for malaria situation, assessment of the effectiveness of the malaria control programme. treatment regimens and control measures, and a discussion and field visit to Jiangsu Institute of Parasitology. Recommendations from the meeting highlight the importance of information exchange and collaboration between countries in East Asia, especially in the control of United Nations, Munsudong, Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Situation Bulletin August September 2004 Page 3 malaria at border areas. WHO will support special training and understanding the importance of the convergence of for malaria programme managers which will help sectoral inputs/services, i.e., health and nutrition, water strengthen technical knowledge and managerial skills as and sanitation, and education in programme planning and well as sharing experiences in control techniques. The implementation. The “focus country approach”, and the establishment of a vivax malaria network was proposed to convergence of services/sectoral, is an initiative in the help intensify collaboration on malaria control. A small implementation process of an IECD strategy in DPRK. technical working group will be formed to assess current knowledge, and identify the operational, research and UNICEF. Publication of “Facts for Life” Handbook. capacity needs related to vectors of malaria. A launch of the “Family Book”, an adapted version of Facts For Life (FFL), was organized by UNICEF and WHO to start pilot project for epilepsy sufferers. NCC, the first event of this kind in DPRK. The purpose of The global epilepsy prevalence rates considered as a the launch was to raise awareness among high level public health problem is in the range of 3-8/1000 decision makers in the government and donor agencies on population. Although there are no systematic studies on a dissemination strategy of key messages of FFL in epilepsy in DPR Korea, experience suggests that epilepsy DPRK. About 50 high level decision makers, including the is a public health problem in DPR Korea. Epilepsy affects vice-minister of MoPH, senior government officials, all age groups, but particularly children. Having epilepsy Ambassadors from the UK, Sweden, and Germany, a can severely affect lives, but in many cases, epileptic fits DFID delegation from UK, and representatives of UN can be controlled by medication available at low cost. agencies and NGOs gathered for the event. Earlier in the same programme, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) A WHO expert on epilepsy carried out an assessment in presented the Korean version/adaptation of ChildInfo, a November on the current situation of epilepsy and the statistical presentation package that was developed by the practices for management of epileptic cases in the country. CBS, and is currently being used for base-line data from The assessment showed that there is a need for upgrading selected Focus Counties. knowledge about epilepsy for health care providers at all levels and there is a shortage of medications needed for The Korean Democratic Women’s Union (KDWU) is one treatment of epilepsy. The WHO expert also conducted a of the key partner agencies involved in the dissemination training course for ‘Master Trainers’ aimed at training of key messages of the Family Book. KDWU has a strong neurologists and physicians from 10 provinces in the network from central level to dong/ri level. In September, country on the identification and management of epilepsy. with UNICEF’s assistance, KDWU conducted a two day Training manuals were translated into Korean and were training to 150 lecturers in Pyongyang. The 150 lecturers, reviewed during the training sessions. WHO also procured responsible for conducting similar training for their anti-epileptic medicines as part of the CAP project where respective provinces and counties, conducted training essential medicines are supplied to vulnerable groups with activities in October and November. special needs. UNICEF/WFP. Nutrition Assessment 2004 WHO recommends that a pilot program be conducted in The joint UNICEF/WFP/Government Nutrition two provinces to assess the feasibility of implementing the Assessment for 2004 took place in October. 4,800 strategy for ‘Identification and Management of Epilepsy in randomly selected children and 2,100 women in 7 the Community’. Community education should be accessible provinces were measured and questioned by 31 promoted through Information, Education and national and international WFP staff and staff from Communication (IEC) campaigns and through supporting UNICEF, the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Institute materials (e.g. posters, pamphlets, radio spots etc) aimed at of Child Nutrition. A three-day training of all involved reducing social stigmas and encouraging people to seek was carried out during the week leading up to the treatment.