Parasites, Hosts and Diseases

The Korea Society for Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (대한기생충학·열대의학회)
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Parasitic Diseases as the Cause of Death of Prisoners of War during the Korean War (1950-1953)

  • Huh, Sun (Department of Parasitology and Institute of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Hallym University)
  • Received : 2014.03.03
  • Accepted : 2014.04.22
  • Published : 2014.06.30
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Abstract

To determine the cause of death of prisoners of war during the Korean War (1950-1953), death certificates or medical records were analyzed. Out of 7,614 deaths, 5,013 (65.8%) were due to infectious diseases. Although dysentery and tuberculosis were the most common infectious diseases, parasitic diseases had caused 14 deaths: paragonimiasis in 5, malaria in 3, amoebiasis in 2, intestinal parasitosis in 2, ascariasis in 1, and schistosomiasis in 1. These results showed that paragonimiasis, malaria, and amoebiasis were the most fatal parasitic diseases during the early 1950s in the Korean Peninsula. Since schistosomiasis is not endemic to Korea, it is likely that the infected private soldier moved from China or Japan to Korea.

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References

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  1. Case Report of Urinary Schistosomiasis in a Returned Traveler in Korea vol.58, pp.1, 2014, https://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2020.58.1.51