Cambodians flee to Sa Kaeo [Thailand]

Published: 12/07/2012 

Bangkok Post

The hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) scare has resulted in a mass exodus of Cambodian parents with young children into Sa Kaeo province. The Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint was yesterday crowded with Cambodian travellers, most of them with young children, eager to enter Thailand.

The Cambodian parents were mainly workers and vendors at the Rong Kleau border market in Thailand.

Thai disease control officials used a thermal scanner to screen for children with a high fever _ one sign of possible HFMD infection.

One child was stopped and tested but the fever was not overly high.

Won Yom, 32, a Cambodian vendor in Poi Pet market in Cambodia, said the Cambodian public health authorities had announced on radio yesterday that the government needed urgent help from the World Health Organisation to control the spread of the virus that has already killed 64 children. That had added to mounting fears among parents with young children and explained why many wanted to come to Thailand.

A Cambodian mother working in Surin province on Tuesday took her two-year-old boy who had a high fever and was suspected of having HFMD to a local hospital.

The incident triggered panic at Sikhoraphum district hospital, which was crowded with children who were mostly there being treated for dengue fever.

Zalo Ann, 30, the Cambodian mother, said she had learned about the spread of HFMD in her home country from the media and when her son became ill, she feared it could be the same disease.

Upon learning about the Cambodian boy and reports of a number of deaths of children in Cambodia from HFMD, parents whose children were being treated at the hospital panicked.

In Kanchanaburi, three more new HFMD cases were reported yesterday at a municipal daycare centre in Sangkhla Buri district, prompting a temporary shutdown of the centre for disinfection.