The recent deadly crowd crush in Seoul sparked widespread interest among South Koreans in cardiopulmonary resuscitation that can help save lives during cardiac emergencies. 　Videos from Saturday's accident during Halloween festivities in Itaewon, which left 156 dead, showed not only rescue workers but also ordinary civilians desperately giving CPR to victims on the streets. 　Posts by people who performed CPR went viral on the internet, bringing home to people the importance of the emergency

Two-hundred and fifty-six. That's the number of people between age 10 and 20 that took their lives due to mental health problems last year. Of a total 13,205 deaths by suicide in 2021, some 5,258 had histories of mental health treatment, according to police data provided by Rep. Oh Young-hwan of the main opposition Democratic Party. The same data shows that the number of suicides aged 10-29 age groups jumped each year from 2019, with the figure for the latter marking 888 as of 2021. The figures

Deborah Birx, ex-White House COVID-19 coordinator, joins as lead outside expert

Moderna co-founder, International Vaccine Institute chief offer insights

　The number of deaths in South Korea hit an all-time high last year due largely to rapid aging and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed. 　A total of 317,680 people died in the country last year, up 12,732 people, or 4.2 percent, from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. 　The 2021 tally marked the largest since 1983, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. 　The spike in deaths was mainly attributable to rapid aging, and COVID-19 was the

Barefoot walking is a new health phenomenon amid growing desire to reconnect with nature

Chat with the vet -- Canine dementia, or Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS)

Whether chasing a lifestyle of low sleep and high output or due to the sleep deprivation synonymous with parenthood, many South Koreans are sleep-deprived. For Kim Yu-ri, a nurse in her 30s with two children, sleep has long been a luxury. Raising a 3-year-old and 1-year-old while commuting two hours daily from home in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to Jamsil in Seoul, her days are already overpacked. “I think seven hours of sleep at night is what I really need, but it never seems to be a po

Women and doctors still navigate murky legal waters when it comes to abortion in Korea, despite the practice having been decriminalized over a year ago. The ban on abortion was ruled unconstitutional in April 2019, but the National Assembly has failed to meet its deadline -- which expired on the last day of 2020 -- to make new laws to reflect the changes. As of Jan. 1 last year, abortion was no longer a crime in Korea. But the lack of laws to guide practice may be undermining women’s r

Users and funds drawn into digital revolution in mental health

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. said Thursday its new biosimilar of the arthritis drug Humira has won approval from Canadian authorities. Yuflyma, an adalimumab biosimilar with a high concentration, is used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory diseases. Yuflyma requires only half the solution administered to patients compared with the existing Humira biosimilar and is also citrate-free, which lessens discomfort during injection. Celltrion re

A slimmer cochlear implant device design and its early activation are likely to lead to better hearing in cochlear implant patients, according to professor Choi Byung-Yoon, an otorhinolaryngology specialist. Cochlear implants, which remains the only way to restore hearing for people with severe to profound deafness, work by translating sound into electrical signals that can be registered by auditory nerves. The implant consists of external components worn outside, much like a hearing aid,

Singer and entertainer Kim Jong-kook has enjoyed over two decades of success in TV and music. But the 45-year-old recently made headlines for something other than his voice: his workout routine. Controversy broke out one faithful Halloween to spook fans of the beloved TV personality, when a fitness YouTuber named Greg Doucette called him out for likely not being “natural” when working out to build his body. “Is he natural? Of course not!” Doucette said in his video. He

It happened back in 2014 when I was in Geneva, Switzerland, serving as a delegate of Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea. I had a skin rash so I visited a local hospital, where they tested my antimicrobial susceptibility before giving me any treatment. The hospital ran this test to see if there were any antibiotics that my body was resistant to. Little did I know before I got tested that there were not many effective antibiotics left for me. Fewer antibiotic options meant fewer treatm

Wrongly administering COVID-19 vaccines into blood vessels instead of the muscles could be behind the serious side effects, some studies have suggested. An Aug. 2 report published by the Journal of Korean Medical Sciences is one of the first in the country to suggest that technique known as aspiration -- which is pulling back on the syringe plunger before injecting the vaccine to ensure no blood vessel is accidentally punctured -- may provide better chances of avoiding side effects. The rep