The Nakhon Ratchasima public health office was on alert for a leptospirosis outbreak yesterday after 68 people fell ill and three died of the disease.
Provincial Public Health chief Dr Wichai Khattiyawittayakul said leptospirosis could be found all year round but would increase from July to September, a rainy period during which farmers grow rice.
From January 1 to July 18, the province reported 65 leptospirosis patients, three of whom had died from the disease, he said. Many patients got the disease from wading barefoot through wet rice-fields when they had leg wounds or cuts.
Wichai urged people with leptospirosis symptoms - such as fever, headache or muscle pain after wading through water - to see doctors rather than buy over-the-counter medicines to treat themselves.
In related news, a fishery academic in Phuket yesterday warned people not to eat sea tortoise meat, after three tambon Rawai villagers out of 80 people who ate hawksbill sea turtle meat at a party in June died from chelonitoxism.
Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre, said some partygoers still showed allergic symptoms, including a burning sensation in the mouth, numb lips, difficulty swallowing, a feeling of heaviness in the chest, respiratory difficulty, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, and double vision.
Capturing sea tortoises to eat their meat was illegal and dangerous, he said, because the animals can accumulate toxic material in their flesh and inner organs from their diet.