The new head of the International Vaccine Institute disclosed a plan to revive a program to develop a laboratory on epidemic diseases in North Korea, which has been suspended since 2010.

“IVI had a program in North Korea that started in 2006, and the program targeted surveillance studies so we could understand the epidemiology of the study, like how many cases, and the importance of a study in a country,” IVI director general Christian Loucq told The Korea Herald.

The original program focused on Japanese encephalitis and a form haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that attacks children.

“The idea was to develop a lab in North Korea, train people and for them to be able to diagnose and survey the disease and to conduct two immunization campaigns for 3,000 kids,” he said. The lab was built, training was completed in China and Vietnam and vaccinations were carried out.

“Training North Koreans is very important for IVI. We put a lot of importance on capacity building,” he said.

In 2010, inter-Korean tensions flared up after the sinking of the South Korean navy ship the Cheonan by North Korea and IVI had to leave the North, halting all immunization operations.

“Now we thought it was a good time for us to go back to North Korea and to reestablish contact with out counterpart in North Korea, we got support from the Unification Ministry here,” said Loucq.

Details are being hammered out but the areas of interest so far include the cause of diarrhea in young children with the idea of preparing for the introduction of new vaccines.

“The areas we have identified are Japanese encephalitis and other diseases and we will help them develop clinical trials for the introduction of Japanese encephalitis vaccines in young children in the expanded program of immunization.

“It’s an ambitious program this time and I hope it would work well, but it’s an important program for us,” he said.

IVI’s first foray into the North revolved around areas surrounding Pyongyang. This time, IVI is targeting four locations where the North Korean population needs it the most.

“All that we are doing has one target, to cure the poor people. That is very much our discussion with the ministry. That’s why they are helping us. That population in North Korea defiantly needs support,” he said.

By Yoav Cerralbo (yoav@heraldcorp.com)