Mystery epidemic hits NKorea: aid group

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

SEOUL (AFP) — A mystery epidemic spreading along some North Korean border towns with China has claimed the lives of dozens of children, a Seoul-based humanitarian group said Tuesday.

The highly contagious disease has sparked a health alert with an estimated five or six children dying every day since April 27 in the northeast city of Hoeryong, the Good Friends group said.

North Korean health authorities have been unable to stop the spread of the epidemic or to come up with an exact diagnosis or cure, it added.

Doctors in the North suspect it may have been caused by avian influenza or hand-foot-mouth disease. "Bird flu is spreading," the group quoted one doctor as saying.

Good Friends, which operates in the communist North, quoted another doctor as...