Engaging North Korea on Mutual Interests in Tuberculosis Control

Since the DPRK famines of the 1990s, the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), has risen dramatically in North Korea. The spread rates are now among the highest in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Launched in 2008, the DPRK Tuberculosis Project, a unique collaboration of US-based voluntary interests, collaboration between a medical institution, a humanitarian NGO, and a non-profit sponsor, began working with the DPRK Ministry of Public Health to fight TB, especially drug-resistant strains, inside North Korea. Since then, the DPRK Tuberculosis Project has achieved critical public health objectives during a period otherwise marked by a profound deterioration of relations between the United States and North Korea.