Surat Thani makes urgent request for mosquito nets

SURAT THANI: -- The Insect-Borne Disease Control Centre of Thailand's southern province of Surat Thani today made an urgent request for 25,000 impregnated mosquito nets, as the number of malaria patients in the province soared above 1,000.

Although the province has set up control zones in three districts, the situation was said to remain critical, with health workers battling to control the spread of infection, a struggle which they admitted was an uphill one, as the mosquitoes were breeding rapidly.

The province is now home to over 1,000 malaria patients, and three people - two Thais and one labourer from Myanmar - have died of the illness.

Today the Insect-Borne Disease Control Centre urged the provincial administrative organization to fund the purchase of 25,000 impregnated mosquito nets to distribute to members of the public in risk areas.(

--TNA 2005-06-12

Chemical-coated nets to fight dengue fever

SURAT THANI: -- Provincial authorities will hand out 25,000 chemical-coated mosquito nets to the public in another attempt to battle dengue fever, which has already killed three people, one of them a Burmese worker.

The nets will be delivered to people in areas at risk of the disease, as provincial and health officers launch a campaign to curb dengue, Thani Thueksubhan, chief of the Surat Thani administrative organisation, said yesterday.

Three areas _ Phanom and Khiri Ratthanikhom districts and Vibhavadi sub-district _ are hardest hit by dengue, which has infected more than 1,000 patients.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-12