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StrontiumDog

Dengue Fever Outbreak Kills Isan Teen Girl


With the rainy season ending, health officials in Northeast provinces are still concerned about Dengue Fever, which last month killed an 18-year-old female in Mahasrakham province. A health official reported 200 cases of Dengue Fever in September in their province.

MAHASARAKHAM – October 5, 2012 [PDN]; a health official from Mahasarakham announced that 200 patients were treated for Dengue Fever in the Isaan province, including an 18-year-old female who died.

As the rainy season is ending and winter begins, it was announced that a total of 700 patients in the province had been infected by Dengue Fever, said Dr. Parinya Rattanaparinya, the head of the Office of Provincial Public Health in Mahasarakham province.

The doctor warned people to beware of this disease, which is particularly dangerous to children, because the current outbreak of Dengue Fever has the most severe strain of the disease.

The number of patients has made the doctor afraid that Dengue Fever will spread out more, so he has coordinated with the municipality and the local branch of the Ministry of Public Health to spray insecticides to get rid of common house mosquitoes in areas near schools and other high-risk areas.

From January 1, 2012 until the present, there have been 713 patients with Dengue Fever, which works out to a ratio of 74 infected people for every 100,000 in the local population, the doctor said.

The infected patient who died in Amphur Muang was an 18-year-old female, whose level of platelets in her blood dropped drastically, which caused her body to go in shock until she died on September 29.

The district with the highest rate of infection was Muang Mahasarakham, followed in descending order by Payakphumpisai, and Kanthornwichai. The three subgroups of people mostly infected by the disease were between the ages of 5-9, ages10-14, and ages 15-24.

Since there is no “cure” or treatment for Dengue Fever, the best method is prevention. The doctor advised parents with children to take precautions to prevent youngsters from being bitten by infected mosquitoes.

The doctor recommended that parents get rid of water sources where the mosquitos breed, such as containers left outdoors, or shallow ponds and drainage areas. They should either drain the water or put Abate sand in the water.

Early symptoms of Dengue Fever can resemble a high flu, which may include a reddish face, tiredness, loss of appetite, and vomiting. If such symptoms last longer than two days, parents should take their sick children to see the doctor urgently.

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"Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar

Dillinger

A bit worrying considering its quite far from the border and smack in the middle of Isaan

Tom Sawyer

Anyone have a handy graph of Dengue province by province for 2012 vs previous years?

Dillinger

Yeah, I have one in my jeans pocket.

I will just go and fetch it

Tom Sawyer

Good boy Spot. Go fetch.

Mr Lick

Where you have open doors, windows and stagnant water nearby, the problem will never be erased.

I'm unsure if the government have issued an Dengue Fever education pamphlet but if not then they should.

We had a blocked drainage channel opposite the house a few years back where a few thousand mossies had gathered to breed. The neighbours weren't particularly bothered but a couple of cans of insecticide spray purchased from the corner shop put paid to them.

Very sad to hear that children are suffering

Troy

Pretty difficult to erase them in Isaan...where ponds are a standard requirement.

Our village gets fumigated twice a year ... usually only 2 or 3 cases per year...not sure for the province (Sakon Nakhon) as a whole though.

nidhogg

can insecticide will put paid to the mossies - but the problem with water is that its the breeding site - i.e. you need also to go for the larvae, which are in the water. Throw in some Bt toxin or similar to the water.