SEOUL, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- South Korea is donating $863,000 worth of hand sanitizer to North Korea to help fight the spread of the H1N1 virus, officials said.
The 200,000 liters of sanitizer are to be delivered next week, Unification Ministry officials told Yonhap News Agency in a story reported Friday.
Twenty South Korean trucks are to drive the hand sanitizer across the military demarcation line to the North Korean border town of Kaesong, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
In December, South Korea gave North Korea about $15 million worth of Tamiflu, the anti-viral medication.
North Korea acknowledged its first cases of influenza A infection early in December, but has yet to report any flu-related deaths. The flu virus can be spread through hand contact and slowed by regular use of hand sanitizer.
Influenza A viruses have several subtypes, which are labeled according to an H number, for the type of hemagglutinin, and an N number, for the type of neuraminidase. H1N1 is an influenza A virus.
