[Caring the Korean way] The deworming pill that marked spring and fall

What does it mean to care -- deeply, instinctively and culturally? In this series, "Caring the Korean Way," we explore the distinct practices, beliefs and values that shape how Koreans care for themselves and each other. From time-honored folk remedies to modern reinterpretations of healing, each story offers a window into the unique ways care is expressed in Korean life. -- Ed.

Growing up in Korea in the 1990s, I remember spring and fall sometimes arriving with a small tablet.

My mother would buy deworming medicine from a neighborhood pharmacy and tell me to take one, even though I had no symptoms. The explanation was simple: “You should take deworming medicine in spring and fall.”

It did not feel like treatment. It was simply something people did twice a year.

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Parasites were also part of school life. Students were occasionally given small containers or paper envelopes and told to return them with stool samples. Carrying one to school was embarrassing, but it seemed ordinary because everyone had to do it.

Only later did I learn that these routines were remnants of a time when intestinal parasites were widespread in Korea.

The country’s first nationwide survey of intestinal parasitic infections in 1971 found helminth eggs in 84.3 percent of those examined. More than eight out of every 10 people tested showed evidence of infection.

Limited sewerage systems and the use of untreated human waste as fertilizer allowed roundworms, whipworms and hookworms to spread through contaminated soil, vegetables, water and hands. Some infections caused abdominal pain, anemia and nutritional problems, while others produced few noticeable symptoms.

The government responded by making parasite control a national public health project.

Korea enacted the Parasite Disease Prevention Act in 1966 and launched a nationwide control program in 1969. Schools became the campaign’s main channel, with students submitting stool samples and those who tested positive receiving deworming medicine.

The program continued until 1995. During the same period, Korea’s rapid economic development brought flush toilets, modern sewage systems, cleaner water and safer food. The use of untreated human waste as fertilizer also declined.

Together, better sanitation, repeated examinations and treatment sharply reduced infections. By the eighth nationwide survey in 2012, the helminth egg-positive rate had fallen to 2.6 percent.

A disease found in most of the population had largely disappeared from everyday life.

The national campaign, however, left behind a seasonal habit.

Because examinations and treatment were conducted regularly, many Koreans came to associate deworming with spring and fall. Even after the school program ended, parents continued to buy tablets from pharmacies once or twice a year.

The medicine was inexpensive, familiar and easy to obtain. Older generations had grown up when parasites were common and could remain unnoticed, so taking a tablet before symptoms appeared seemed like an obvious precaution.

Over time, the deworming pill became more memorable than the disease itself.

Many Koreans remember the small box from the pharmacy, the tablet handed to them by a parent and the instruction to swallow it because the season had changed. Others remember the awkward stool containers brought home from school.

Today, most Korean children have never submitted a stool sample at school. They grow up with sanitation systems that previous generations could not take for granted, and intestinal worms are no longer considered an ordinary part of life.

Yet the custom has not disappeared completely.

Some people still buy deworming tablets in spring or fall. Others no longer take them but clearly remember being told to do so as children. The practice survives less as a response to a present danger than as a habit inherited from an earlier Korea.

The deworming pill began as part of a nationwide effort against a genuine public health crisis. It entered everyday life through schools and pharmacies and remained there even after the crisis receded.

The parasites largely disappeared. The memory of the small seasonal tablet lasted longer.