Many Koreans who work and live in Seoul and other urban areas were born and raised in the provinces. It is a decades-old tradition that they visit their hometowns to see their parents, relatives and friends at least twice a year ― the Lunar New Year (or Seollal) and Chuseok holidays.
But this biannual ritual may not materialize during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday from Feb. 2 to 6 as the mass migration could cause the spread of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease and bird flu to uninfected areas.
Since the first FMD outbreak was reported in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 29, the deadly virus has spread to nearly all parts of the country, except for the southern regions ― South Gyeongsang Province, North Jeolla Province, South Jeolla Province and Jeju Island.
. . .
In a desperate attempt to stop the devastating epidemic, scores of provincial governments have launched a campaign to prevent people from traveling to other areas during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Among others, South Jeolla Province, which has seen not a single case of FMD, is asking those who plan to visit there during the five-day holiday not to do so in a bid to stop the spread of the highly infectious virus.
The provincial government has asked dozens of organizations made up of individuals born in the country’s southwestern province not to visit their hometowns.
``If we can prevent FMD from spreading to our area during the upcoming holiday, we are positive that South Jeolla Province will remain FMD-free. It is not easy to say this but we desperately need people who have family members here not to come this time,’’ said Lee Ki-ho, director of the livestock quarantine department at the South Jeolla Provincial Government.
The other 362 days out of the year you couldn't convince many Koreans, or expats for that matter, to visit Jeollanam-do, but as The Waygook Effect says given how little vacation time Koreans take it's unlikely that local officials will discourage Koreans from driving cross-country for one of its biggest holidays.
7 comments:
The concept of a government thinking it can influence people in this way is ludicrous. Seriously, DON'T travel during one of the biggest travel holidays of the year?
Were this a national directive I suspect some people might change their plans. Then again, the people (might) realize that FMD is an animal's disease, not a human's disease (if I've been misinformed, say it ASAP)... How exactly are travelers going to cause the area to suffer if they don't have the disease?
"given how little vacation time Koreans take it's unlikely that local officials will discourage Koreans from driving cross-country for one of its biggest holidays."
I'd hardly qualify chuseok or seollal as vacation time. Someone driving from Seoul to Jeollanamdo faces a thirteen to fifteen hour car ride. The draw of family ties probably has more to do with this situation than the desire to take a day off. If people really wanted to take a few days off they would just stay in Seoul.
Hey Chris, F/M Disease cannot be caught by people, but it is a highly contagious virus that can be easily spread through the air.
People who come into contact with infected animals can pick up the virus on their clothes or farming equipment and then easily carry it themselves to another person or another farm. That is why the government doesn't want people shifting between cities and farm villages. It definitely will make the problem worse.
Thanks for the link, Brian!
OIE International committee should suspend SK on the list of FMD Free countries.
If it happens twice a year isn't it semi-annual and not biannual?
@The Waygook Effect - resolved, it's a highly contagious virus.
Why not, then, lock down travel to 'essential' travel, or start testing people at the train station / bus terminal? In the span of short months, Korea managed to set up enough inspection sites for the swine flu.
"Why not, then, lock down travel to 'essential' travel, or start testing people at the train station / bus terminal?"
The foot-and-mouth disease virus can be transmitted in a number of ways including close contact animal to animal spread, long-distance aerosol spread and fomites or inanimate objects, typically fodder and motor vehicles. The clothes and skin of animal handlers such as farmers, standing water, and uncooked food scraps and feed supplements containing infected animal products can harbor the virus as well. Cows can also catch FMD from the semen of infected bulls. Control measures include quarantine and destruction of infected livestock, and export bans for meat and other animal products to countries not infected with the disease.
Just as humans may spread the disease by carrying the germs on their clothes and body, animals that are not susceptible to the disease may still aid in spreading it. This was the case in Canada in 1952, when an outbreak flared up again after dogs had carried off bones from dead animals.[1] Wolves are thought to play a similar role in the former Soviet Union.[7]
How are you going to check people at the train station if it can be transmitted on a person's clothes, or cars?
Also, as I said before, this isn't a situation where the government can mandate that people not travel somewhere. If people are going to travel, they'll travel, there aren't enough cops to stop the flood of people traveling to different provinces to see their families. They just have to wait for the outbreak of the disease to end.
There isn't really anything that the government can do, so I suspect that they are issuing these statements so that they can appear as if they are doing something.
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