Could you tell me about the tuberculosis test? I can't seem to find an exact answer on Korea message boards. Are the Koreans only testing for active TB? Would they deport someone who has inactive, latent TB (likely born with it, took medication to make it even more dormant)?
The comment is on a 2009 post regarding challenges to the drug and TB tests required of E-2 visa applicants. He, and I, are looking to readers for answers, specifically regarding the test. As I said in an email to him, I have no recollection how I was tested for TB or even when I was tested for it, and thus can't speak to whether they're testing for latent as well as active TB, or whether they're testing for TB at all as a prerequisite to obtaining an E-2.
Regarding tuberculosis in South Korea, the fight against it is what occupied the time of some of the earliest westerners in Korea, the death rate from TB in South Korea is the highest among OECD nations, and relatively recent incidence rates from the World Health Organization rank it among developing countries. According to an article earlier in the month 35,000 new cases are reported in South Korea each year. A 2008 Chosun Ilbo article says
As of 2005 the rate of TB infection in South Korea was 96 new cases for every 100,000 people. By comparison, the figure was five per 100,000 people in the U.S., 14 in the UK, and 28 in Japan.
However, according to 2006 OECD numbers (.pdf file), the number of infections in South Korea is relatively minor compared to other Asian countries.
6 comments:
I believe that they are testing for both as I had a chest x-ray and an active skin test done two years ago during my only health check in my four-year stint over here.
It seems that as long as you don't leave the country for more than three months or leave your place of employment, you no longer need the health checks when renewing your visa.
To my recollection, I was never given a skin test, rather instead they gave me a chest x-ray**. I don't know whether this will detect active or inactive TB.
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chest_photofluorography
The post brings up a valid question regarding TB, but for clarification purposes, it was the TBPE (tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester) narcotic tests and HIV tests that were challenged at the Constitutional Court, not TB.
In an article by the KT in 2009, Andrea Vandom gave the KT a copy of the letter she had submitted to the immigration authorities, which read: " I will not be submitting the HIV/ AIDS test results or the TBPE drug test results that you have requested."
The KT switched the term "TBPE drug test" in her letter to read: "tuberculosis drug test".
The article is here.
Vandom asked the KT to correct the error, but they chose not to.
To my knowledge the E-2 medical tests do not test specifically for TB -- although as the above commenters mention, there is often a chest x-ray.
Brian, if you want to email me I can provide an "official" list of the specific medical tests.
Readers should be aware that different schools (especially public schools) conduct different tests (often without informing the teachers) depending on the criterion they have established with the local hospitals where they have their teachers tested.
Yeah - what Ben said! There has been some confusion about TB and TBPE, the latter being a drug test.
I actually had this conversation yesterday in a round about sort of way. It was the first day of the summer where it was nice and hot, but not humid - good for those TB sufferers in their Solarium etc.
I am pretty sure that the only reason you'd get a chest x-ray at a school sponsored clinic outing would be for TB. Of course male staff might be checking out their propensity for lung cancer, and also siroces of the liver...
Thanks for the updates and clarifications, guys.
I'm curious to know how many of those TB deaths are unvaccinated people. Does anyone know the vax rate for TB in Korea?
I've also heard about a new, drug-resistant TB strain in the ROK. Does the regular TB-vaccine offer any protection against it?
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