Status of intestinal helminthic infections of borderline residents in North Korea

Recently, only a few people infected with intestinal helminths are found in South Korea (S. Korea). However, soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) used to be widely prevalent throughout the Korean peninsula in the past Ascariasis, trichuriasis and hookworm diseases are main STHs and were the target of serious concern in S. Korea when agriculture was the main field of employment During this comparatively past in S. Korea, human feces were used as a fertilizer for cultivation purposes, which perpetuated STHs and reinforced their abilities to reinfect the human population. Helminth egg positive rates were similar in South and North Korea (N. Korea) before the Korean War in 1950 according to previous reports However, many records are available on the prevalence of helminthiasis in S. Korea after the Korean War, including national surveillance records, but it is hard to find any report on prevalence of helminthiasis in N. Korea. Only the infection of malaria is well understood in N. Korea due to the involvement of WHO (WHO, 2000), when the seriousness of the situation became evident in late 1990s.