Vibrio vulnificus, a strain of necrotizing bacteria, was detected in seawaters off the west coast of Gyeonggi Province, the province’s Health and Environment Research Institute said Tuesday. Three of the 38 seawater and 33 wetland mud samples tested positive for the bacteria on April 29.  About 50 cases of the bacterial infections occur nationwide every year, with nearly half of those infected dying, according to the institute. The bacteria are typically found during su

About 130,000 children’s products were found to contain endocrine disruptors during customs clearance procedures, a Korea Customs Service report showed Friday.KCS and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards jointly performed a safety evaluation on children’s products for two months starting in March, ahead of the May 5 Children’s Day. (Korea Customs Service)Endocrine disruptors were detected in children’s products, containing 14 to 220 times more phthalate-based plasticizers than allowed.

　Global life expectancy grew by 5.5 years between 2000 and 2016, the World Health Organization said, warning though that unequal income and access to health care translates into far shorter lives for many.　The UN health agency also stressed significant gender differences in life expectancy worldwide.　On average, a child born in 2016 can expect to live 72 years, up from 66.5 in 2000, according to the annual World Health Statistics report.

　One in 5 deaths globally is linked to poor diet, experts said, warning that overconsumption of sugar, salt and meat is killing millions of people every year.　The United Nations estimates that nearly a billion people worldwide are malnourished, while nearly 2 billion are “overnourished.”　But the latest study on global diet trends, published in The Lancet, showed that in nearly every one of the 195 countries surveyed, people were also eating too much of the wrong types of food -- and consuming wo

　Poor air quality caused more than 17,000 deaths in South Korea in 2017, more than 90 percent of which resulted from the onslaught of harmful PM2.5 particles, a study released by a US civic group showed.　The “State of Global Air 2019” report, published by the Health Effects Institute, revealed that about 17,300 people died from indoor and outdoor air pollution in Korea in 2017, up 23.5 percent from the 14,000 recorded in 1990.　In Korea, the death toll from air pollution decreased to 13,200 in 19

　South Korea saw reports of medication side effects gain about 2 percent in 2018, although their rate of growth slowed sharply from the prior year, data showed.　Local health authorities handled 257,438 cases of side effects from taking medicine last year, up 1.9 percent from the previous year, according to data from the Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management.　By drug, aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine had the largest reports of side effects with 36,321 cases (14.1 percent), followed by

　Foreigners visiting South Korea for medical treatment are largely satisfied with the services they receive, a poll showed.　Foreign patients gave an average rating of 90.5 out of 100 for the level of care they received in 2018, with numbers generally climbing over the years, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.　Patients from Russia gave the Korean health care industry the highest rating at 94.4, followed by those from the United States at 91.8 and those from China at 90.1, the latest

　Of the global surge in measles last year, just 10 countries accounted for three-quarters of all cases, the UN children’s agency said, including one of the world’s richest nations, France.　Ninety-eight countries reported more cases of measles in 2018 compared with 2017, and the world body warned that conflict, complacency and the growing anti-vaccine movement threatened to undo decades of work to tame the disease.　Measles is more contagious than tuberculosis or Ebola, yet it is eminently prevent

A revised narcotics bill that goes into effect March 12 will give the green light to imports of medical cannabis for self-treatment under strict conditions.Under the revised law, cannabis derivatives that have been approved abroad for self-treatment purposes can be brought into South Korea through the Korea Orphan and Essential Drug Center, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.(Yonhap)People with diseases for which there are no alternative means of treatment in Korea can import four

More than 18,000 people died from sudden cardiac arrest without previous symptoms or warning signs in 2017 -- making it a bigger cause of death than lung cancer, at 17,980, and road traffic accidents, which killed 5,028 in the same year.According to data released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control Wednesday, 25,859 people died from sudden cardiac arrest in 2017. Excluding accidental and suicidal deaths, 18,261 died without warning.Korea Centers for Disease Control and PreventionMinistry of

CHICAGO (AP) — Fish oil, vitamin D, novel drugs, new cholesterol guidelines: News from an American Heart Association conference over the weekend reveals a lot about what works and what does not for preventing heart attacks and other problems.Dietary supplements missed the mark, but a prescription-strength fish oil showed promise. A drug not only helped people with diabetes control blood sugar and lose weight, but also lowered their risk of needing hospitalization for heart failure. (AP)Good news

　South Koreans rank first among major economies in terms of visits made to hospitals in 2016, government data showed.　According to the data by the National Health Insurance Service, South Koreans visited the doctor's office an average of 17 times in 2016, much higher than the average of 6.9 times by citizens of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries.　Japan came in second with 12.8 visits, with Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany rounding out the top

It has been a decade since South Korea started issuing short-term visas for foreigners seeking medical treatment here as part of measures to boost medical tourism.Since then, the medical tourism market has expanded rapidly, with the number of annual foreign visitors for medical treatment here rising 52.2 percent in the four years through 2017 to some 321,600, according to data compiled by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.However, the number dropped by 11.7 percent on-year in 2017

An increase in working hours among women reduces the chance of them getting pregnant, a report showed Tuesday.According to the report by the National Assembly Budget Office, the chance of conceiving a baby is reduced by 0.34 percentage point for every additional hour a married woman works per week.The report was based on five sets of surveys conducted on women between 2007 and 2014 about working conditions and their decisions on pregnancy and marriage. (Yonhap)Long working hours have been cited

For the first time, one of the new immunotherapy drugs has shown promise against breast cancer in a large study that combined it with chemotherapy to treat an aggressive form of the disease. But the benefit for most women was small, raising questions about whether the treatment is worth its high cost and side effects.Results were discussed Saturday at a cancer conference in Munich and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors have transformed treatment o