Quarantine officials walk toward a livestock farm to cull pigs infected with foot-and-mouth disease in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Korea Times |
By Park Si-soo
Nearly 70 percent of government officials, who participated in the slaughter or the live burial of animals on farms infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), are suffering severe mental trauma, a survey showed Friday.
About 14 percent of them were physically hurt or contracted diseases during the operations, according to the survey.
Rep. Kim Young-woo of the ruling Grand National Party commissioned the questioning of 211 officials mobilized for quarantine efforts earlier this month.
More than half of them (51.2 percent) complained of mental trauma following the operations. Nearly 29 percent were suffering from sleep deprivation or chronic fatigue, while another 13 percent said they still felt the effects from the memory of the noise and stench from the burial sites.
The results came amid soaring criticism that quarantine officials have buried hundreds of thousands of cows and pigs alive. The authorities explained the inhumane action was inevitable with the spread of the disease outpacing the authorities’ slaughter capacity before a proper burial.
It has drawn a strong backlash from environmentalists and animal rights activists who recently staged a rally to call for a halt to the live burial of animals and the wider use of FMD vaccination.
Since Nov. 29 when the first outbreak of the disease was reported in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, nearly 1,070,000 cows and pigs have been culled in 45 cities and counties across the country, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Many of them are believed to have been buried alive. The ministry warned that tens of thousands more could be destroyed in the days to come as the spread of the disease spins out of control.
The ministry raised the alert level for FMD to serious in late December and launched a pan-government crisis center to keep the deadly disease from spreading further.
“The problem is that the government mobilized inexperienced officials in quarantine operations,” Rep. Kim said. “Side effects from the move are appearing in the form of mental trauma or other health problems.”
The survey found nearly 90 percent of the mobilized officials had neither relevant knowledge nor experience to deal with the quarantine. The lawmaker urged the government to secure an experienced workforce and replace untrained officials.
Health risks
With quarantine efforts running around the clock, a growing number of officials are complaining of extreme fatigue and some have already been hospitalized.
On Friday, a 54-year-old quarantine officer in Gunwie County, North Gyeongsang Province, collapsed after excessive work in frigid weather. The officer, surnamed Kim, was taken to hospital with his facial nerves paralyzed, hospital officials said. Kim’s colleagues said he had been working without holiday since late November when the county was first hit by FMD.
Another quarantine officer has lapsed into a coma for four days. The 46-year-old officer, surnamed Kwak, collapsed on her way back home after working all night in Goryeong, North Gyeongsang Province.
On Dec. 1, a 50-year-old official in Andong fell into a coma while working overnight on quarantine operations. He died on Dec. 7. |
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