28th August
On our last day, we visit the National TB Reference Laboratory in Pyongyang.
In collaboration with Stanford School of Medicine and the San Francisco Bay Area TB Consortium, CFK is currently working on a project to renovate and completely equip this lab. The likely cost is estimated at USD 500,000 (of which about $150,000 remains to be raised) including the cost of importing modern equipment and establishing a reliable electricity and water supply. It is hoped that installations, which we inspect, will all be completed by the end of 2009; the next task will be to train laboratory staff in using the new equipment.
The main challenge now facing the TB system in North Korea is that they are unable to qualify to receive medicines needed to treat patients suffering from drug resistant TB strains. This is in part because they are not able to do the complex culture and sensitivity testing needed to accurately diagnose and treat drug resistant TB. Also, because they cannot provide accurate statistics on the incidence rate, they are not receiving the level of attention needed to attract stable pools of funding for medicines.
The National TB Reference Laboratory project will mean that North Korea will be able to understand the pattern of TB transmission and prevalence much better as well as to access the necessary supplies of medicine from international funding pools. This will be an important step in substantially reducing the incidence of TB in North Korea.
Later we visited Ryokpo Guest House in the countryside outside Pyongyang where we have a fabulous lunch – Korean barbeque “bulgogi”; a special meal which we are assured is “beef”. It is very tough…
Tags: Christian Friends of Korea, National TB Reference Laboratory