Thailand Moves Head Off Dengue Epidemic

[mnoorsapl]

So what is the definition of 'standing water'?  For example, could it mean those little ornamental lotus leaf plants in concrete pots that you often see in people's gardens or are these somehow able to fend of the dengue mosquito's - My neighbour has hundreds of them dotted around her garden

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It should be "stagnant water". Presume that there are little fishes in those pots, the mosquitoe lavae are fish food. But, these pots are still potential mosquitoes breeding ground.

[Robby nz]

Hears something to try

Mossie larvae come to the surface to breath and they have to pass through the water surface to emerge. Put some water and larvae in a jar and watch what they do (better than most TV)

then put a few drops of cooking oil on the water and watch, the larvae will get stuck in the sticky oil, only need a light coat and it is non toxic non polluting.

Once you believe go for it and coat all standing water including water tanks

[mnoorsapl]

Thailand moves head off dengue epidemic 

Health Minister Dr. Suchai Charoenratanakul told a media conference here that the eradication campaign, beginning in Bangkok on May 22,  was aimed at preventing an epidemic of the mosquito-borne disease during the high-risk, rainy season months between June and August.

--TNA 2005-05-13

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why wait for the "rainy season months" , mosquitoes breeds the whole year.

[Thomas_Merton]

Well said!

I will ad to this:

Chemical companies are going to make a killing here is all that will really happen while the natural environment and people will cont to suffer a lot, it sounds to me.

The Thais are so gullible to believe modern “chemicals” will solve any and all their problems.

Chemicals will kill the very thing that will save the population from mosquito born diseases namely the fish.

Thailand never had this problem before chemicals started being used here as the fresh water fish took care of naturally eradicating the mosquitoes as well as provided a critical protein food source for nearly everyone in the country.

Now they unknowingly (they are so dumb as my Thai wife says) poison the fish (with all kinds of chemical agents including their laundry soaps) and the fish die-off with all their “cool” new chemicals.

And then what happens… the mosquitoes come right back and breed in the empty dead toxic waters but now they are just a bit stronger and more resilient to the toxic chemicals that these dumb (cant think of a better word) people are using to destroy their very own environment.

The diseases spread, the fat boys (wealthy Thai/ Chinese chemical company owners) make the big money and the people and the natural environment suffer once again.

The real problem is these people are plain dumb and use there new found wealth (dumb people with too much money are dangerous to everyone including themselves in a modern world) to buy so much plastic and toxic chemicals which ends up polluting their own environment.

Mosquitoes can adapt to such changes (a toxic polluted environment) faster than fish and humans so guess what?

You get big problems which even now the PM is concerned about.

But if this PM had any sense about him (and he absolutely doesn’t) he would start putting tight controls on all chemical use, clean up the environment (i.e. out law toxic laundry soaps and the “plastic bag” as they have I hear in Taiwan I hear) and make Thailand an eco friendly place to live for everyone.

This is what the King of Thailand has been promoting now for over 30 years but who is listening?

This PM is only promoting more and more toxic chemical use in Thailand such that the country will destroy its own environment and the results will be catastrophic.

I predict this PM will go down in history as the man who finished off the Thai environment and destroyed the very lands which these Thai people are so darn proud of.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

for once i agree with ayakiawa....red colour my own accent

we also have problems with mossies: malaria and some other thing: nile fever i think its cauled by daytime mossies..... in our area, no spraying, but everyone is responsible for farm areas and home areas...

old tires must be covered if stored and if used for animal feeders then punctured to allow water to drain (which have to do anyway so feed doesnt get wet);

standing water pools and water treatments pools use gambusa fish which can survive in pretty much any water and love mossies

in ornamental pools, use gold fish not koi (koi are veggie eaters, goldfish eat meat also)

leaky water systems get fixed also (wastes water and mossie problem)

plant mint and other water loving plants that 'dry' up the area near leaky water areas if cant (wont) be fixed, frogs come along, eat the mossies etc....

the sprays are all poisonous to insects, amphibians and reptiles, and birds thus creating a huge circle..

but then, we've discussed this and other environ. issues a million times on thaivisa etc.... thailand will learn just like israel learned, the hard way... and the turnabout came thru massive education in grade schools, and outreach programs which now again (politics of course) have no funding so the problems are returning....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi bina,

I lived in Israel when mossies were fought with DDT and foliage was killed by spraying with oil. With the result that Hedera (a town that congratulated itself on having eliminated the malarial mosquito), despite its orange groves and avocado orchards, smelt like a petro-chemical dump when the temperature rose.

Do you have any links to English language sites that outline the modern approach to the mossie problem as practised in Israel today?

Yours,

TM

[sabaijai]

A dengue vaccine developed by the US Army at their medical research facility in Kamphaeng Phet is currently undergoing Phase II clinical trials.

dengue vaccine

trials

[dr_Pat_Pong]

That is dted 2002 and 2003. Hopefully they are getting somewhere by now.

[sabaijai]

That is dted 2002 and 2003. Hopefully they are getting somewhere by now.

Should be. I met an American nurse working at the facility while I was in Kamphaeng Phet a couple of years ago and she said the trial was going well. She said it would be 6 years before they knew for sure though.

[mnoorsapl]

That is dted 2002 and 2003. Hopefully they are getting somewhere by now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Should be. I met an American nurse working at the facility while I was in Kamphaeng Phet a couple of years ago and she said the trial was going well. She said it would be 6 years before they knew for sure though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

some quotes from the link:-

"I regularly and vigorously encourage them (dengue researchers) to work faster," he said. "The vaccine is a wonderful thing for global health, but it's really important for military welfare."

Military welfare ??

[bina]

hi, thom.mert.

u asked just in time; today our bug person made his rounds so i asked him as he checked for mossie larvae (found, in one of our decoritve pools w/o fish); non in the others, and all animal drinking tanks that are used by animals have a toilet type float to regulate water supply i.e. animal slurps, tank fills; any that seem to be not in use, we close off. the water stays cooler, animals prefer this.. the water doesnt sit in large open tanks for long time with out being drunk up by them, no mossie larvae.

we (our kibbutz) use the gambusa fish in all pools including the sewage processing plant we have, with good results; in decorative pools, we use the goldfish, not the koi (veggie eaters)... for flies, we use the hormone things that stink; the neighbhoring areas i.e. the cities use permethion spray (poisonous to reptiles etc but small amounts needed to be effective). the cities do promote water drainage, preventing leaky taps and pooling water, no open plant containers w/o plants, etc....like i said, it has a lot to do with politics, community awareness, education and money: the poorer the area, the less 'progressive' the people's awareness of ecology, the more spray is used... arab villages in our area spray anything that moves, so beware when eating veggies; the palestinian areas use stuff thats been banned or highly difficult to obtain here...our community swimming pool has a 'robot' that cleans the water at night; our underground spring and outside on surface pool had fish; someone poisoned them and the frogs, etc. so mossies returned... gambusas by the way are live breeder, pretty non descript fish but they love mossies.

no links that i know of... but our bug person goes to all kinds of bug conventions for the latest info. and we have one guy here working on some big project with med. fruit flies etc working for non chemical solutions (probably genetic manipulation etc) too bad they cant do that for mossies... not good for the frogs etc

[mnoorsapl]

Mozzies have gone mutant, those chemicals have made them immuned

[DaveYo]

Hmmm, just read in the Bangkok Post Today, a person near Nakhon Sawan, got nailed to the cross and is dead of the Dengue Bleed Fever.

To Date now 40 + are dead.

Listen folks, this Dengue is nothing to mess with. If you see standing water anywhere around your area, even if the Thai people have it, go find a translator and talk some sense to the thai people to get rid of it.

Now if your stuck with kilometers of the standing water, then if I were you get the hella out of there. You got to be crazy putting yourself up as a bullseye bombing target for the mossies.

Whats even worse, these darn bastardos when they bite, you not even feel the bite at all. I hate mossies that don't even give you a pricking and then when the job is done they leave you, and later on you get the fits of all kinds such as itching etc, and if that poison is Dengue, you will have a sure fire fever within less than 24 hours.

Right now, we are just starting to get the heavy rains. Lo and behold, a real favorite for the mossies no doubt. In any rate so far so good that I don't have any mossies buzzing around inside the house. I did have a few back when I moved to this place in October, and after some considerable patience and bombing the place with the RAID, all of them are dead and its quiet in the front lines for now.

If you can, buy the Ultathon cream (maker is 3M) and spray if you can locate it. If not have it sent to you direct from USA. You can find it there at any outdoors outfit store. Lasts for a cool 12 hours. Best there is in the market and even the special forces have it too. It is a USA military approved sidewinder without a doubt against those mossies. Love it when I see them plop dead in front of me. Adds to my kill count. Hehehehehehehehe.

Daveyo

[george]

Update:

Dengue cases double in Phuket

PHUKET: -- Thailand's southern island resort of Phuket today launched a concerted campaign to destroy mosquitoes responsible for spreading dengue fever after a discovery of a two-fold rise in the number of dengue cases since last year.

Led by Deputy Phuket Governor Suphachai Yuwaboon and the chief provincial public health official, the campaign kicked off this morning with pleas to the public to help in the fight against the ade aegypti mosquito.

Members of the public taking part in the launch held banners stating their commitment to destroying mosquito larvae, which were paraded around the town.

According to Dr. Wanchai Satyawuthiphong, the island province’s chief public health official, there are currently 68 confirmed cases of dengue fever on the island, with another 340 patients waiting diagnosis.

Phuket has the ninth highest number of dengue cases in the country, and more than double the number it had last year.

However, the chief public health officer stressed that no-one had yet died of the condition, which has become a matter of national concern this year.

--TNA 2005-05-25

[Jai Dee]

A mate at work has just returned after being laid up for the past 3 weeks with dengue fever...

His place of work: Laem Chabang

His place of residence: Pattaya

[george]

Update:

Dengue case total approaches 9,000

BANGKOK: -- The number of dengue-fever cases in the current outbreak is nearing 9,000, with almost 1,000 new cases reported last week.

As of May 14, the total number of cases was 8,900 with 16 deaths, said Public Health Minister Dr Suchai Charoenratanakul.

By the second week of the month, there had been about 900 cases of the disease reported throughout the country, Suchai said, adding that the sharp rise was considered high.

“We need to focus more on accurate and fast diagnosis to save patients from the ensuing shock-syndrome stage, and in addition step up a preventative campaign across the country,” he added.

Each of the 20,000 healthcare volunteers around the country is assigned to take care of 10 families in their own communities, Suchai said.

Their main duties are to watch out for possible signs of dengue and to help in the campaign to stem the epidemic by eradicating mosquito and larvae habitats.

They are also suppose to advise the people how best to prevent mosquito from biting in the first place.

--The Nation 2005-05-28

[george]

900,000 join latest dengue campaign

BANGKOK: -- More than 900,000 Public Health Ministry volunteers have joined forces with medical professionals to stamp out the dengue fever outbreak nationwide.

Up to 8,900 cases of the deadly disease have been found, and 16 patients have died.

Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul yesterday said health volunteers and medical professionals would visit households every day to talk to local communities about how to protect themselves from contracting the virus. ``Everyone has to be alert. When a single case occurs, officials will go to the area to eradicate the mosquito disease carriers as quickly as possible,'' he said, adding health staff would spray chemicals within a 100 metre radius if a dengue fever patient was found.

The visits and registrations are part of the government's latest dengue fever containment measure.

At hospitals, sick people would be tested and treated to prevent an increasing number of deaths. Up to 900 new cases were found last week alone. Dengue shock syndrome has killed 16 people since it struck the country earlier this year. A 26-year-old woman who died at Uthai Thani Hospital last week is the latest reported fatality.

Dr Suchai believed the state was on the right track in trying to limit the spread of dengue fever by introducing such a swift quarantine measure.

Narongsak Angkhasuwapala, the Public Health Ministry deputy permanent secretary, said the number of patients and deaths tended to increase especially during rainy season.

--Bangkok Post 2005-05-28