Korean Job Discussion Forums

[GlowStickGirl]

My coworkers and friends...whenever they go out to eat, always share/eat out of the same hotpot bowl (whether it be jjigae, odeng, etc). I'm worried about contracting something like hepatitis. How rampant are such diseases in Korea?

I also heard herpes is on the rise. Do I need to worry each time I get a greeting kiss from someone?

[Zyzyfer]

The soup is HOT. I think you'll be okay by eating out of the same big bowl as everyone else.

And what kind of Korean greets you with a kiss that would require you to question whether or not they'll get you sick?

[camel96]

Actually I heard something from a doctor once that the average person is carrying around something like 20 organisms at any given point. Be it worms, herpes virus, warts virus (most of us are carriers of those two already apparently but it usually sits dormant until your immune system craps out), fungal infections, spirokeets. So most people aren't as clean as they think they are. In fact you probably already caught herpes when you were kissed by your grandmother or aunt when you were five or picked your girlfriend's cold sore scabs at kindy (sorry about that last one but it's probably true). Hepatitis isn't so worrisome - get your shots and you'll for the most part be covered against A and B. C if you're really paranoid also. As far as D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S - or whatever they're up to - you're on your own with those.

[masuro]

[rapier]

Just eat some kimchi at the end of every meal and you'll be ok.

[OiGirl]

If you are really worried about this, I agree with the above, you need to get your Hep A and B series.

I doubt herpes is a concern in this situation. Unless you're sharing with someone with an obvious cold sore. Yuck!

Most other germs, you'll get over them and gain resistance or you'll learn not to share with others.

[Zed]

Camel, are you sure you can get shots against Hep C? It seems to me that I recall there only being A & B shots available but I'm too lazy to research it right now.

[camel96]

Zed - you're right I made a mistake.

[Zed]

No worries. Thought you may have had newer info than I did.

[Ilsanman]

I'd be worried about catching diseases with the filth I live in here.

All the spitting and pissing on the streets. I realized recently the spitting is not confined to only the streets. People spit on subway trains, other places too.

The litter everywhere too. Anyone take history 101? How different is this from London, when the black plague began.

[Gord]

[Alpinegal]

I was really worried about contract sone kids of diseases as well, and then I went to a travel health clinic in Canada...and the nurse made it out to be worse than I thought. She was really paranoid (I hope). I got the Hepatitis series A & B, some typhoid fever and several other vaccinations, plus warnings against eating fresh fruit and vegetables of any kind unless they had a thick skin that germs could not penetrate, like bananas. I left there feeling somewhat frightened, and paranoid myself. Than I thought about it, I am sure that people in Korea eat apples and other fruit, raw. Also, which is worse? The mild threat of getting sick from fresh fruit and vegetables or the very definite possiblity of getting scurvey from lack of vitamins and nutrients? So how many of you in Korea eat fresh fruit and vegetables? I don't want to have to boil and apple before I can eat it.

[whatthefunk]

You people are nuts. Cooking apples? I think it's best to wash and maybe peel the apples because of pesticides, but for f*cks sake you don't need to cook them. I don't see korean people keeling over from the plauge. I have gotten a few extra colds this year, but thats probably due to the kids sneezing on me and the gigantic steel factory down the road.

[Zyzyfer]

I ate some of Ryst Helmut's fresh grapes from off of his farm, didn't die, AND thems was some damn good grapes.

[whatthefunk]