A series of novel coronavirus cases without epidemiological ties to previous patients have been reported in Korea in the past four days, with one believed to be linked to at least 15 others. A Korean woman, 61, who started having symptoms as early as Feb. 7, continued with her daily tasks until she was found to be infected Tuesday. Over the 11 intervening days, authorities say she came into clo...

More than 85,000 terminally ill South Koreans have chosen to forgo life-prolonging treatment since the legalization of the right to die with dignity two years ago, government data showed. The law took effect on Feb. 4, 2018, allowing terminal patients to sign up to forgo a “meaningless extension of life” by stopping or postponing four life-sustaining treatments. According to the data from th...

Infectious disease experts say virus battle far from over

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Seven in 10 lung cancer patients who have undergone surgery at Asan Medical Center in Seoul have survived, the hospital said in a report. The cardiothoracic surgery department at Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul said Monday the postsurgery survival rate of patients with lung cancer, the sixth most common cancer among Koreans, has improved markedly over the past decade. In the hospital’s st...

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- Korea is hosting an international meeting to fight the rising public health threat of drug resistance. The seventh session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission task force on antimicrobial resistance kicked off Monday in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, to be held for five days through Friday. In 2015, the World Health Assembly adopted a global action plan to tackl...

South Korea ranks as one of the leading members among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the treatment of cancer, medical data showed. The 2019 Health at a Glance report released by the Paris-based organization said Asia’s fourth-largest economy had the highest five-year survival rate for colorectal, rectal and stomach cancers among the 32 member states checked, the M...

Overusing your smartphone may wreck your health, experts say

Korean liquor manufacturers may no longer be allowed to use photos of celebrities on their beverage packaging. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday it would come up with measures banning the images of celebrities on alcohol bottles to discourage the drinking culture. The move follows Rep. Nam In-soon’s exhortation during a parliamentary audit of the ministry last month that featuring ...

A third of South Koreans were given prescription narcotics in the past year, as more people received comprehensive medical checkups, government data showed. More than 17.8 million people received drugs like propofol and zolpidem, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said, citing some 107 million pieces of data collected from July 2018 through June this year. The drug safety agency said pain ...

Health insurance spending to cover smoking and drinking-related treatments reached 13 trillion won ($11 billion) from 2016 through 2018, data showed. According to a report submitted to Rep. Jung Choun-sook by the National Health Insurance Service for the ongoing parliamentary audit, annual expenditures, including insurance coverage and costs paid by individuals, exceeded 4.6 trillion won last ...

The government on Wednesday warned against using liquid e-cigarettes, or e-liquids, until health perils associated with them are better understood. “The Health and Welfare Ministry strongly recommends discontinuing the use of liquid e-cigarettes until the link between lung injuries and liquid e-cigarettes is clearly identified,” said Health Minister Park Neung-hoo in a press briefing Wednesday m...

An orb with a set of ears, blinky eyes and the voice and speech manners of a chatty child is making advances in dementia therapy at a hospital in Seoul. Named Bomy, the robot assists cognitive training for patients in the early stages, or at the risk of developing dementia. Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital’s Robot-assisted Cognitive Training Center opened its doors in April, and is heade...

The number of elderly South Koreans with mental health issues has risen sharply in recent years, as the country scrambles to provide better health care for its people, a report showed. In the report to the National Assembly, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service said that in the 2010-2018 period, the number of people over 80 afflicted with major depression surged 176.5 percent, wi...