Dengue war looms
Public Health Ministry provincial "war rooms" will destroy mosquito breeding areas on a weekly basis during the dengue-fever danger period. The disease has killed 10 this year and infected 10,000.
Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot yesterday visited a hill-tribe village in Mae Chan district of Chiang Rai where about 5 per cent of its 2,000 residents have been infected since January. Prat said officials fumigated 500 homes. Doctors will test residents over the coming two weeks. Meanwhile, dozens of new cases are detected daily. Hospitals are offering free testing, he added. Nationally, 9,245 cases have been detected and 10 people have died since January. That is a 17 per cent increase in infections from the same period last year when nine people died. Central provinces account for 40 per cent of infections followed by the South, with 25 per cent. In Bangkok, 1,612 cases and one death have been recorded. Pom Prab district is the worst with 60 infections for every 100,000 people.
Duangkamol Sajirawattanakul
The Nation
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