Health chief warns of dengue
PHUKET: Provincial Health Office chief Dr Paisan Worrasathit has issued a warning for people on Phuket to protect against contracting dengue fever, which sees a spike in the number or people contracting the disease each year during the rainy season.
Currently, 200 islanders are suffering from the disease, and one victim recently died, Dr Paisarn said.
He added that dengue fever was most often contracted by people near freshwater pools and that most of the victims were elderly.
However, Dr Paisarn played down the warning, saying that the type of dengue found in Phuket is relatively mild and fatal only to the very weak, the very young or the elderly.
He added that the incidence of dengue in Phuket seems to be falling. “In the past, Phuket ranked ninth of all 76 provinces in Thailand [for the number of people who had contracted dengue]; today we’re ranked 20th.
“Of the 200 people in Phuket currently infected, only three were admitted to hospital for treatment,” he added.
The PPHO has launched a campaign to educate local people in risk areas how to better protect themselves from contracting the disease, mainly by ridding their homes of mosquito breeding sites, usually still pools of fresh water.
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