The Department of Health yesterday (July 14) issued a warning against eating cockroaches after a footage of a man eating cockroaches was widely shared in the social media.
The 60-year-old man was seen eating cockroaches in front of city officials and workers who entered his house in Bangkok’s Huai Kwang district to clean following complaints by neighbours of unpleasant smell from pigeon drops in his house and neighborhood which he never cleaned for the past several years.
While cleaning his house filled with piles of garbage, comprising plastic bottles, plastic bags, cans and other broken and discarded utensils, cockroaches heavily infested in the house came out along with rodents.
The man, who led his life scavenging for discarded waste, then grabbed a cockroach and ate it amid the eyes of city officials.
In a quick respond to the shared footage which might mislead the public that eating cockroaches is not harmful to health, the department then issued warning about the eating and also displayed handbook about various sickness that will come from cockroaches which included digestive and respiratory system diseases, skin disease, hepatitis, and infant deficiencies.
Various types of parasite, virus, protozoa, and fungus could be found in a cockroach. Anyone who finds cockroach eggs should burn them immediately, the department suggested.
Health department warns of cockroaches eating - Thai PBS English News