This photo is unrelated to the article. [TASS]
This photo is unrelated to the article. [TASS]

Health authorities in a small Russian mining town have attributed a sharp rise in parasitic infections to an influx of North Korean workers.

NK News, a US-based outlet specializing in North Korea coverage, reported Tuesday that health authorities in Russia's Rostov Oblast identified an increase in North Korean migrant workers as the cause of rising infections — including whipworm and roundworm — citing the region's 2025 epidemiological report.

According to the sanitary and epidemiological report released by Rostov Oblast health authorities, reported cases of liver fluke infection last year reached 17 — an 8.5-fold increase from two cases the previous year. The incidence rate per 100,000 people jumped from 0.05 to 0.41.

Liver fluke infection occurs when people eat raw or undercooked freshwater fish and can damage the liver, gallbladder and pancreas.

Whipworm infections, transmitted through soil, stood at zero in 2021, one each in 2022 and 2023, and three in 2024, before surging more than twentyfold to 68 cases last year. Of those, 67 were recorded in Shakhty, a small coal-mining town. Roundworm infections more than doubled, rising from 17 cases in 2023 and 25 in 2024 to 54 last year.

Whipworm and roundworm live in the human intestine and spread through feces into soil, food and water. Outbreaks are common in areas where human waste is used as fertilizer or where sanitation is poor.

The report stated that the rise in infections was linked to the detection of these parasites in people arriving from North Korea, and noted that cluster outbreaks had been identified among migrant workers in the region.

NK News noted that the report emerged amid a large-scale influx of North Korean workers into Russia. Russia issued 36,000 student visas to North Koreans last year. The international community views this as a North Korean scheme to earn foreign currency by disguising workers as students to circumvent UN sanctions.

This is not the first time Russian authorities have raised concerns about the health of North Korean workers. NK News reported that when tuberculosis cases emerged in Moscow between 2024 and last year, Russian authorities called for North Korean workers to undergo compulsory treatment.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com