3.3 Communicable and noncommunicable disease control

expert meeting on the revision of the training curriculum for community health practitioners, and later completed the Competency-Based Curriculum for Community Health Practitioners. In accordance with a four-year pilot project for the development of the community health practitioner system, the Government put forth a plan to produce 500 community health practitioners every year from 1981, with the expectation of deploying 2000 CHPs across the country by 1985 (24).

3.2.3 Study on primary care approach to school health

Kim Hwa-jung, a professor at SNU GSPH, led a research and development project for school nurses from 1985 to 1989. The project aimed at developing a curriculum to expand the role of school nurses in PHC services. To that end, a series of expert meetings and training sessions on PHC services for school nurses at Seoul Education Committee-affiliated schools were conducted. The research project delineated the role of the school nurse, including medical check-ups and common disease treatment in school, and also developed appropriate health education coursework for each school grade (24, 25).

wa-young s ong h ©

Q participants at the midterm evaluation meeting of a Who-supported research project on the phc approach for school health in 1988

3.3.1 Leprosy

WHO continued to support efforts to control leprosy in the Republic of Korea throughout the 1980s, holding leprosy control seminars in 1980 and 1981.

Dapsone had long been used as a monotherapy for leprosy, but resistance became problematic. To solve the issue, WHO recommended and applied a multidrug therapy for all leprosy patients through outpatient clinics and mobile clinics. As a result, the number of new leprosy patients significantly decreased from 448 in 1982 to 39 in 1995, and the infection rate per 10 000 went down from 1.14 in 1982 to 0.09 in 1995 (26).

In 1994, WHO extended its support for two Austrian nuns who had been volunteering on Sorok Island since the 1960s by supporting the provision of medical services that enabled the nuns to extend their stay and to fully concentrate on their work without any difficulties (27).

rchives of Korea ational a © n

Q a nurse dresses the wound of a leprosy patient in her home.