Some health experts said young people traveling to countries where the level of hygiene isn't so high, or people eating imported foods contaminated with the virus could be the cause of the prevalence of the disease.
The KDCD advised people traveling to Southeast Asian countries and Africa to have vaccinations, which is the only effective way to prevent it.
Also, the government advised people to wash their hands more often, drink boiled water or ``safe'' water as well as to cook food.
Well, yes, increased travel could be one reason. Perhaps the Korean aversion to handwashing, soap, and flushing toilet paper could be some others.
11 comments:
It is pretty sad that one needs to constantly travel with an assortment of toiletries in this country. Or, try finding a garbage can for that matter, anywhere.
John from Daejeon
This is really weird... A Korean coworker of mine came down with hep A...very sick, in the hospital. She had traveled to Italy on a 3 day business trip a month earlier. The doc said she probably got it on her trip to Italy!!
When the people in my African country heard that I was going to Korea, one of the first things I was told was to get Hepatitis vactination. Not bad for a country with such high standards of hygene, especially when it comes to street food or sharing food from the same dish.
They are Children. A 6 year old child would not wash his hands after dropping a load either. But he has an excuse: he is 6. I see very well educated Koreans in my office coming out of the bathroom stalls and not washing their hands with soap and water. Could any of you do that without feeling dirty?
True story: I went to a Korean dentist about 7 or 8 years ago for a checkup and scaling. The guy was drilling and filling a Korean patient with no gloves on. After finishing with her, he went to the sink, briefly ran his hands under the water, pretended to use the soap, briefly ran his hands under the water again, and wiped his hands on a towel. I was freaked out. He comes over to me and says "open up."
"Uh.....can you wash your hands with soap first please?"
"I did."
"No, you didn't."
"Yes, I just did."
I wasn't going to argue with a dentist over proper hygene, so I just got up and walked out.
There is never any soap in men's washrooms at school.
I would rather kiss my cat, who licks his ass, than shake hands with a Korean.
When in doubt, blame it on the migrants.
hmm glad I got my Hep A vaccination before I came.
any changes though with promotion of more hygiene practices? someday...someday
Two people at my work have just come down with this too...and they are both female. I'd assumed men were more vulnerable because of all the swapping of Soju/whiskey glasses that we do...
Yeah but who on this forum would want to wash their hands in some of the bathrooms here. I'm talking about those bus station bathrooms that has the bar soap on a metal pole. Seriously? Are you telling me that I should touch that thing that like 50 other people touched after they took a leak?
I read an good article concerning washing one's hands with a dirty bar of soap. The question posed asked whether one's hands were cleaner after using a dirty bar of soap or left unwashed. It turns out that it is better to still wash one's hands with a dirty bar of soap because the coat of grime gets washed off while rinsing one's hands.
I had to research this question while in Korea, because the lack of hand washing is disqusting.
Case in point: my friend works in an office in Toronto on the same floor as a Korean student agency. She sees many Koreans in the washroom putting on makeup but not washing their hands. So she put up a sign telling people to wash their hands.
Please don't respond with the obvious: many Canadians don't wash their hands either. No shit.
Alright, got me on the soap thing, guess I'll just start carrying my own soap. But on the point of the throwing the toilet paper away, I wonder if that is some kind of government regulation and not as much a habit as mentioned in the link.
When I moved into my apartment, my landlord was pretty insistent that I throw the waste tissue away. That was one of the first things they told me.
In my school, my co teacher told me that the principal was a little angry because the school had to pay some kind of roto-reuter service to come to the school to suck out some toilets because there was some toilet paper in the pipes. This could indicate that Korean plumbing isn't as up to standard as the government claims.
It could also be an energy saving method. Waste water treatment uses a lot of energy in municipalities. In the Netherlands, things called "separation toilets" are becoming popular. These toilets separate solid from liquid wastes, which makes it a lot easier for the water treatment plants. The Urine doesn't get mixed with water, but goes into a separate tank and eventually gets used for fertilizers.
In some cities, they found that if only about a third of the people use these toilets then energy costs go down drastically because separating urine from water is a much more drawn out and costly process than separating solid wastes.
I realize that the situation is different here and there are no separation toilets but there may be a reason related to having to treat the water with the paper in it.
All that being said, I do try to flush my paper wastes when I am out of my apartment.
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