Health experts said that North Korea may experience epidemic on tuberculosis as the country's withdrawal of major international aid organization for the medicines needed by tens of thousands of patients continues.
In a report by The New York Times, posted on November 16, it said "the dwindling stockpile of crucial medications follows the abrupt departure of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international aid organization whose grants to North Korea supported the treatment of 120,000 TB patients last year."
The support reportedly ended last June despite the need and outcry of health officials in North Korea that it could start a major epidemic.
Neurosurgeon Kee Park of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School said that the situation could get worse in the future if it is not properly dealt with today.
Meanwhile, the US-based nonprofit Eugene Bell Foundation, which works on the ground treating tuberculosis in North Korea, said that the crisis is because of being compounded by US-led sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear program.
According to the World Health Organization, there are about 107,000 cases of tuberculosis being reported in North Korea last year. Moreover, the country has been recorded as one of the countries with the highest rates of the illness.
"As a result of the loss of the Global Fund grants for the DPRK, we expect a 50-75 percent reduction in treatment capacity for non-MDR-TB patients," Park said.
"Consequently, our model predicts between 155,000 to 210,000 more people will die from TB-related causes within five years. To be clear, these are new deaths that are expected on top of the current mortality rates. We have assumed that the treatment of MDR-TB will continue at current levels," he added.
