Foreign vessels detected to be harboring pathogens were found to have moved from one local fishing port to another without any quarantine measures taken, officials said Friday.

According to the Health and Welfare Ministry’s audit reports for the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Quarantine Station, a total of 66 foreign ships contaminated with pathogens moved through local ports in 2014.
More than 205 ships stationed in Korea were also excluded from quarantine control despite the detection of one or more pathogens, as they left the country before the test result was available.

In one case, a Chinese ship, which entered a local port Aug. 18, 2014 in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, was found to have been contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus on Aug. 22.

The port authorities were only notified of the test results on Aug. 26. By that time, the ship had already visited Yeosu port in South Jeolla Province, Pyeongtaek port in Gyeonggi Province and Ulsan port. It left for Japan on Aug. 31.

Vibrio Vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are designated as first-grade pathogens alongside Salmonella.

Once a pathogen is detected, the National Quarantine Stations is supposed to immediately input information into the online quarantine system and notify the regional quarantine office for monitoring.

The eight public quarantine offices, however, were found to have delayed online updates for more half of the cases in which a virus had been detected.

Upon the audit, the Health Ministry ordered the disease prevention body and the quarantine office to come up with measures to monitor the quarantine status and movement of ships that contain viruses.

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