South Korea faces new border threat 'malaria mosquitoes' as temperature peaks

A monitoring device has been working all day near the heavily guarded border that divides North and South Korea, for catching malaria-carrying mosquitoes that might cross the border.This time, South Korea which tracks missiles or troop movements on the border, is occupied with catching the mosquitoes as the country rages its efforts to achieve the "malaria-free" status.

South Korea has been making efforts to achieve this goal for decades now as the nation has been dealing with it, due to its proximity to the isolated North where the disease is prevalent.

This year, South Korea also issued a nationwide malaria warning. According to the scientists, climate change, especially warmer springs and heavier rainfall could attract more mosquito-borne diseases to the peninsula unless the two Koreas, which remain technically at war, cooperate.

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The primary issue remains the DMZ, a four-kilometre-wide no man's land that runs the full length of the 250-kilometre border.

The lush forests and wetlands have covered the demilitarized zone and are majorly unvisited by humans since it was created after the 1953 ceasefire that ended Korean War hostilities.

Kim Hyun-woo, a staff scientist at Seoul's Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said the DMZ has stagnant waterand "plenty of wild animals that serve as blood sources for mosquitoes to feed on in order to lay their eggs."

Decades ago, South Korea once believed that it had eradicated malaria, however, in 1993, a soldier serving in the DMZ was infected and since then, the disease has persisted, with cases up nearly 80 per cent last year to 747 from 420 in 2022.

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Kim Dong-gun, an environmental biology professor at Sahmyook University in Seoul, told AFP, "The DMZ is not an area where pest control can be carried out."

The country's health authorities have installed 76 mosquito-tracking devices in key areas near the DMZ.

"Painful" experience by affected people

Around 90 per cent of South Korea's malaria patients were affected in regions close to DMZ in the last decade, according to the official figures. However, rare cases occurred in other areas.

Shin Seo,36,was diagnosed with malaria in 2022 after being hospitalised with recurring high fevers, however, she had not visited a border region that year before getting sick.

"I have no recollection of being bitten by any insects," she told news agency AFP.

Initially, the doctors thought she had a kidney infection and it took around 10 days before she was finally diagnosed with the mosquito-borne disease.

Seo recalled her experience and said that having malaria felt like "I was being stir-fried on a really hot pan," adding that it was so painful that in tears, "I once even begged the nurse to just knock me out."

"Malaria is a truly terrifying disease," she told AFP, adding that she hoped more could be done to prevent its spread.

(With inputs from agencies)