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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