Deadly virus strain spreads to Thailand
- : 13/07/2012 at 01:29 AM
Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon yesterday visited two children at Surin Hospital after they developed HFMD symptoms.
Doctors found the children were not in a severe condition. One is from Krasang district of Buri Ram and the other is from Surin's Muang district.
Mr Surawit said the HFMD outbreak in Cambodia has claimed the lives of more than 50 children, who were infected with Enterovirus Type 71 (EV-71), a dangerous strain.
The two HFMD-infected children in Surin were being quarantined at the public hospital to prevent the disease spreading, the deputy minister said.
Last year, six Thais died of HFMD.
Since January this year, a total of 10,813 people in Thailand have been infected with HFMD, but they were not infected with the EV-71 strain that claimed many lives in Cambodia. In Surin alone, a total of 40 HFMD cases have been reported this year.
The deputy minister said teams of health officials would be sent to border areas to check whether there were any more cases of HFMD.
He asked childcare centres and schools to close temporarily if up to five students were found to have caught the disease.
He said prevention measures have been put in place along the Thai-Cambodian border, particularly at Chong Chom permanent border checkpoint in Surin's Kap Choeng district.
He advised residents to wash their hands frequently as part of primary prevention. He instructed paediatricians at all hospitals, particularly in areas near the Thai-Cambodian border, to thoroughly examine diseases and health conditions of child patients.
Although there were HFMD infections in Thailand every year, the viral strains had not previously been dangerous, he said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/302199/deadly-virus-strain-spreads-to-thailand
