'Acute Enteric Epidemic' Afflicts 800 Families in North Korea, Media Says

Although North Korean media described the disease in question as an “acute enteric epidemic”, South Korean officials reportedly suggested it might be cholera or typhoid.

An outbreak of some sort of "unidentified gastrointestinal disease" has occurred in the south-western part of North Korea, Sky News reports.

According to the media outlet, some 800 families might be afflicted by what the North Korean media described as an “acute enteric epidemic”, with South Korean officials suggesting it could be cholera or typhoid.

Meanwhile, North Korean news agency KCNA announced that the “public health crisis” in the country is “being defused”.

"The central emergency epidemic prevention sector launched a campaign for treating patients by dispatching relevant officials and rapid collective diagnosis teams of the national hygienic and anti-epidemic centre to the areas in South Hwanghae Province, where an acute enteric epidemic occurred, and making an epidemiological survey of inhabitants and checking up people with fever," KCNA said in an English-language article.

The North Korean media outlet also noted that the country’s head of state Kim Jong-un “has sent medicines prepared by his family to Haeju City, South Hwanghae Province”, and that he “stressed the need to contain the epidemic at the earliest possible date by quarantining the suspected cases to curb the illness' spread thoroughly."