Doctors recommend vaccines for expats

A group of doctors Friday recommended foreign residents in South Korea to get vaccinated against five infectious diseases in an effort to better prevent the possible spread of contagious illnesses.

The Korean Society of Infectious Diseases encouraged foreigners to receive five vaccines -- Japanese encephalitis, hepatitis A, MMR, chicken pox and DTaP, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

This is the first time Korean doctors have released a list of recommended vaccines for the growing number of expat residents here. As of this year, more than 32 million foreigners have either entered or left Korea while over 1.7 million are residing in the country.

The move also came after the Middle East respiratory syndrome recently hit the country, infecting nearly 190 people and killing 35. Korea has had the second-largest number of MERS cases after Saudi Arabia, the originating country.

On Thursday, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a nationwide Japanese encephalitis warning as over 500 mosquitoes carrying the Japanese encephalitis virus were found in Busan.

The health agency issued the advisory once the Japanese encephalitis virus-borne mosquito was spotted. The alert level will be raised if over 500 mosquitoes are detected in 30 regions across the country or a case of infection is officially reported. This year, the advisory was raised in April.

Since 2005, 114 Japanese encephalitis cases have been confirmed, with 26 reported last year.

While 95 percent of the cases do not show disease symptoms, some can have fever, headache, diarrhea or even fall into a coma, the authorities said.

Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines are available at public health offices for children aged 1 to 12.

The number of hepatitis A cases has sharply decreased in the country since the 1970s, but started to rebound in the 2000s.

MMR -- measles, mumps and rubella -- expanded to Korea after it became prevalent in some Southeast Asian countries. Korea was designated as measles-free in 2014 by the World Health Organization. 

Whooping cough has also been on the rise with about 230 people infected in 2012, jumping fourfold in three years.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)