[Thai] Doctors head to Cambodia to tackle virus

14 July 2012

Bangkok Post

 

The Public Health Ministry [of Thailand] will send a team of doctors to Cambodia to help prevent the spread of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD).

Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday said the ministry planned to send HFMD specialists to Cambodia even though there has been no request from Phnom Penh.

The minister said one HFMD case was recently detected in Ayutthaya province.

He told residents not to panic as Thailand could control the disease.

Residents in Sa Kaeo province were worried yesterday after Cambodia's http://www.dap-news.com reported four more children with the dangerous HFMD strain had been detected in Battambang province, on the opposite side of the border.

The website quoted the Battambang Hospital director as saying the four Cambodian children were infected with Enterovirus Type 71 (EV-71), the dangerous strain. One of the children was in a serious condition.

To calm fears, military taskforce officers and immigration police based in Sa Kaeo distributed hand-sanitising gel at the entrance of Rong Klua market in front of Aranyaprathet border checkpoint.

All Cambodians wanting to go to the border market were required to use the hand gel before being allowed to enter. Cambodian children were also required to undergo a thermal scan to check their temperature. The same measures were put in place at border crossings in Surin.

In Ratchaburi, a school in Photharam district suspended classes yesterday after 12 kindergarten pupils developed symptoms similar to HFMD.

Teachers at the school yesterday cleaned and disinfected classrooms, floors, glasses and other items used by pupils. The school will resume classes on Monday. So far, the number of known HFMD cases in the province has reached 116, said Dr Suriya Kuharat, deputy chief of Ratchaburi public health office.

Earlier, 24 students at a school in Ban Pong district were infected with the disease. The school has been shut since Wednesday.