North Korea Autumn Visit
(October 16th – November 1st,
2012)
The following is a short report on the most recent
visit by the Eugene Bell Foundation to the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea (North Korea).
This autumn’s trip took place from October 16th
– November 1st. Our delegation was invited by the North Korean
Ministry of Public Health. It included Dr. Stephen Linton; his wife, Cecilia
Lee Linton; Dr. Justin Seung, medical director and tuberculosis specialist; Fr.
Gerard Hammond M.M., Eugene Bell Foundation board member; Fr. Michael Roncin
MEP, Fr. Christopher Berard(Lyons Archdiocese) and Mrs. Leslie Horne, Seoul
Foreign School teacher.
We picked up our visas at the DPRK Consulate in
Beijing
on October 15th and took the Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang
the next day. We were met by a 7 member team composed of officials from the
Ministry of Public Health, tuberculosis specialists and technicians. The North
Korean team traveled with us during the entire sixteen day visit. As usual, our
delegation stayed at the Kobangsan Guest House, a facility located about 20
kilometers northeast of Pyongyang operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On our first day we visited EugeneBell’s warehouse at
the Central Medical Depot in Pyongyang. This guarded facility is the main
distribution point for medications donated to the Ministry of Public Health. We
arranged for transport of medications and supplies to six of the eight
multi-drug tuberculosis treatment facilities supported by EugeneBell. Because
arranging separate shipment to distant facilities is difficult, we loaded
medications and supplies for the two most distant facilities on our own trucks.
EugeneBell has been assigned to North Korea’s two
northwestern provinces (North and South Pyongan) where approximately 1/3rd
of the population lives. We have approximately 800 multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis patients under treatment this autumn. EugeneBell’s program is the
only one available in North Korea and reaches only about 5% of the multi-drug
resistant tuberculosis patients in the North Korea.
We left for the Sunchon MDR Tuberculosis Treatment
Center, North Pyongan Province at 4 am the next morning (October 17th)
and did not get back to the Guesthouse until after 10 pm that night. Travel to
and from another T.B centers took even longer due to rainy weather and bad road
conditions.
At each center we visit the procedure is the same. Our
team collects sputum samples and takes X-rays of all registered patients.
Sputum samples from prospective patients are tested using the three GeneXperts
machines we bring with us. (The Taejon Diocese, Maryknoll and Seoul Foreign
School each donated one of these high-tech machines. Within two hours
GeneXperts are able to determine whether someone has tuberculosis, and whether
their tuberculosis is resistant to the primary drug for treating tuberculosis.)
New patients are selected according to the results of these tests. While the
other members of our delegation help with collecting sputum, weighing patients,
copying medical documents, and taking pictures to confirm patient identities,
our medical director consults with the local North Korean physicians to
determine which patients have completed treatment. We hold a ‘graduation
ceremony’ for all patients who are being discharged. One of our final tasks is
to distribute another six-month supply of medication to all old and new
patients.
Completing all of these tasks takes at least nine
hours and makes for a very long day as we process approximately 100 patients at
each center. Because tuberculosis is an airborne disease, all of our work with
patients must be done outside as it would be dangerous to be in close contact
with highly-infectious patient’s in-doors. This is the primary reason our
visits take place in spring and autumn. This visit we only had two rainy days
and the weather did not turn cold until our last day, for which we were
grateful.
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a difficult
disease to treat, particularly in patients who have been ill for as long as
most North Korean sufferers. Our cure-rate has risen from about 50% to 60% and
we expect results will continue to improve as the program becomes more
established. As a consequence, these visits have both happy and sad moments.
There are many deaths and some patients do not respond to the medications we
bring, despite our best efforts. Someday we hope to have hospices for those who
fail treatment but as yet we can do little for them. On the other hand, we are
encouraged when we see cured patients discharged to return to their families in
good health.
Ambassador Edward Pietrzyk invited me to celebrate
Mass at the Polish Embassy on Sunday October 28th. He sent
invitations to other members of the 24 diplomatic missions and members of the
international community in Pyongyang. There have been six Masses offered at the
Polish Embassy since 2010. Attendance has ranged from 48-62 Catholics and
Protestants, including children. After each Mass the Ambassador invites
everyone to a luncheon reception. This time the new ambassador for Sweden
attended the Mass. Though he is not a Catholic, he invited our delegation to
visit his Embassy. His wife is a fervent Catholic.
On The Feast Day of All Saints we said our goodbyes to
our North Korean Ministry of Public Health team members. We also thanked the
employees at the government guesthouse who go out of their way to make our
visits as comfortable as possible by providing meals for us no matter how late
we return from our visits to treatment centers.
Although we have just returned, we are already making
preparations for our next visit scheduled for April 2013. Eugene Bell’s
multi-drug resistant program may expand to North Korea’s east coast next year.
Catholics are an important source of support for the
Eugene Bell Foundation’s work in North Korea, both for funding and for
personnel. Due to North Korea’s reluctance to allow South Korean citizens to
visit undeveloped areas, the Foundation depends on non-Koreans who speak Korean
to staff its delegations. Persons with these qualifications who are willing to
volunteer their time are not easy to find. I hope more Catholics; particularly
members of religious communities in the Republic of Korea, will become
involved. This is a unique opportunity to minister to people who suffer from a
deadly disease in desperate need of help.
