Global health authorities may have to turn to North Korea for the solution to some of the deadliest health plagues in the millennium as the country has said it has the cure to MERS, AIDS and Ebola.
According to the country's mouth piece, KCNA, North Korea says it has developed a vaccine that is “very effective” in treating MERS, Ebola and AIDS, as well as a range of other diseases that modern medicine is yet to find a cure for.
Called Kumdang-2, the drug is reportedly able to treat everything from AIDS to tuberculosis and cancer, as well as “harm from the use of computers” and morning sickness.
North Korea's news agency KCNA is, however, notorious for making hyperbolic claims about the country's achievements - from scientific breakthroughs to the sporting prowess of its leaders, and has previously trumpeted the efficacy of the drug.
Developed by North Korea’s Pugang Pharmaceutic Company, and promoted under the tag line “Everyone has the right to be healthy” , the vaccine is made of extracts from ginseng with the injection of rare earth elements.
Furthermore, the country claims to have been testing this cure-all drug since 1989.
North Korea has taken drastic measures in the past to guard against viral diseases, and it has recently intensified screening and vowed “watertight” measures at airports and border crossings to ward off the MERS virus.