Nonsense in Pyongyang cholera incident.

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On March 6, 1952 piles of insects were found in the front of a house in Pyongyang. The insects were swept and burned by Han San Kuk and his two grandchildren. Next day they vomited and had diarrhea. They were transferred to a hospital where they died within two days. The "excellent" Antiepidemic Committee did not advise the population to stay away from suspected insects.

The insects appeared after an overnight flight of the US planes. Pracki and Meray were brought to Pyongyang after the three victims died, but the quarantine was still in effect and the quarantine zone was surrounded by armed soldiers. Pracki noticed propaganda leaflets and empty envelopes in front of the house and wondered why propaganda was dropped together with infected insects. Previously Meray was informed by a doctor in the Hungarian hospital that infected insects were probably deposited on the ground by soldiers, but when he wrote about it to Hungary this information was deleted,

In the "bacterial attack" on the North Korean capital only one house was affected. Noone else was ill. As the family of the victims informed the journalists this neighbourhood was not beforehand immunized against cholera. A hypothesis is raised that here also the infected insects were deposited on the ground.

Pracki and Meray talked to the doctors in charge of the incident. The diagnosis was made according to clinical symptoms without bacteriological examination of stools, contrary to medical practice. Only post mortem bacteriological examination was performed. The area insects were examined bacteriologically contrary to usual practice - insects are no reservoir of cholera. The room of the victims was not disinfected.The family and the neighbours were not examined bacteriologically.

The bodies of the victims were burned (so were the bodies of Dai Dong victims), the ashes were buried anonymously in distant mountains. The usual practice cited in the monograph of Robert Pollitzer Cholera published by WHO is to bury victims bodies after disinfection in cemeteries.

Vaccination in Korea.

North Korea was receiving vaccines and sera from other Communist countries. Polish Committee for Defence of Peaee supplied Korea since April 1951 with vaccines and sera free of charge. There was such an abundance of vaccines that in the summer of 1952 the Korean party asked the Poles to deliver clothing and shoes instead of vaccines. One can not understand why in March 1952 some neighbourhoods were not immunized yet.

North Korean government provided incorrect information about vaccination which reached a prominent historian,Albert Cowdrey through the former captive in Korea, Brigadier General Dean. The information was that everybody in Korea was vaccinated and four times revaccinated, that the vaccination card was required everywhere. Cowdrey published it in 1987 in the book Medics War on page 22. The publisher of the book was Center of Military History, United States Army.

Personal information from Pracki also contradicts information from General Dean. Pracki described vaccination performed in the street. Everybody who approached the unit was vaccinated, there was no paperwork involved. Pracki was asked if he wants to be vaccinated? He declined. Pracki and Meray were vaccinated half an hour before entering the Pyongyang quarantine zone. Immunity against cholera does not develop immediately after vaccination and Meray called this procedure "a dreadful comedy".


Absurdities in Dai Dong cholera incident.

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