Dengue on the upsurge
The Public Health Ministry is on high alert to prevent a dengue fever epidemic during this rainy season as the numbers of infections and deaths continue to rise.
From this month until August, all provincial health offices have been put on full alert to monitor the vector-borne disease (one carried by an organism) which usually hits the country hardest when the rains come, said Dr Prat Boonyawongworote, permanent secretary of the ministry.During this period, he said, each province was required to maximise its public campaigns encouraging people to cooperate with health officers in regularly destroying the sources of mosquitoes, the carrier of the disease. Furthermore, the doctor said, in an attempt to reduce the number of cases and deaths from the disease this year, each province was required to take measures to contain a dengue epidemic within 24 hours of receiving a report of an infection. As of June 17, there had been about 12,500 cases of dengue fever reported nationwide this year, or about 20 per 100,000 people. The total number of deaths from dengue fever in the period was 15. The biggest number of dengue cases was reported in the Central region, which has seen about 5,600 cases including five deaths, according to the ministry. Meanwhile, the northern province of Tak, which borders Burma, was warning tourists coming to the province to be cautious about malaria. The province accounts for about 30 per cent of the total number of malaria cases reported in the country, said Dr Trairuang Ruangweerayuth, the director of Mae Sot Hospital. Most of the cases were reported in five of Tak's eight districts: Phop Phra, Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, Tha Song Yang, Umphang.
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