Thai Public Health Ministry Launches Nationwide War On Mosquito-Breeding Grounds

webfact · May 12, 2012

Public Health Ministry launches nationwide war on mosquito-breeding grounds

BANGKOK, 12 May 2012 (NNT) – The Public Health Ministry is set to rid the country of as many mosquito-breeding grounds as possible before the new school term begins.

Dr. Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, deputy director-general of the Disease Control Department, said that all provincial health offices have been instructed to work with the local administrative organization offices in destroying larval habitats and to launch a more intensified campaign to kill mosquitoes.

He said that the move followed reports on the outbreak of dengue fever in Ranong Province, where one was killed and 83 others were infected with the virus during the first 4 months of this year.

Dr. Suwannachai stated that, even though the latest outbreak has not been as severe as what Thailand saw 2 years ago, the Health Ministry will remain extra-vigilant about the situation, especially with the arrival of the rainy season approaching.

He said that all health offices, particularly in the South and border provinces, have been instructed to step up their measures before the new school term begins later this month.

The Disease Control Department’s deputy director general went on to say that the Public Health Ministry is planning to launch a major campaign to mark the annual ASEAN Dengue Day on June 15th.

Meanwhile, official data stated that during January 1st and May 1st, there have been 7,815 dengue patients, with 9 killed by the virus, across the country.

-- NNT 2012-05-12

hellodolly · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

Bagwan · May 12, 2012

On behalf of the ching chook population, I protest.

h90 · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

Of course it is bad for the ecology. But there are priorities....

Instead of spraying with chemicals that kill every insect there is a virus that infects the larvals and it multiply itself till all larvals are dead.

Works very well, but I never saw it in Thailand, only in Europe, and I don't hope that this government get any good ideas.

daninthai · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

One thing at a time. First they'll take care of the mosquito problem. Then they will have time to fix the environment. Then they can create flood-retention areas. Then they can fill them in to stop the mosquitoes. Then they can fix the environment. Then they can create more flood-retention areas. Then they can.....

Don't try to criticize the lack of foresight and overall planning. "This is Thailand. You don't understand the Thai way."

MEL1 · May 12, 2012

And what about all the fish, birds, bats, dragonflies and other animals that live on mosquitos as a staple diet?

-mel.

hellodolly · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

One thing at a time. First they'll take care of the mosquito problem. Then they will have time to fix the environment. Then they can create flood-retention areas. Then they can fill them in to stop the mosquitoes. Then they can fix the environment. Then they can create more flood-retention areas. Then they can.....

Don't try to criticize the lack of foresight and overall planning. "This is Thailand. You don't understand the Thai way."

Afraid you are looking in the mirror I do understand the Thai way Next month it will be a thing of history.

The Thai way for hundreds of years has been to ignore them.

You are trying to force Western ways on to them.

Despite the fact that as has already been pointed out there are ways to do it with out poisoning the environment but they would still have a big effect on all the fish and other wild life that live on them.

It is my understanding that there are some thing like 400 different types of mosquito's and only a few are harmful.

Never been there but Chiang Mai has a insect museum run by the worlds foremost expert on mosquito's.

stevehaigh · May 12, 2012

Dr. Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai - tha'ts a hell of a long last name, i assume its looks shorter in Thai script

thaiedward · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

Of course it is bad for the ecology. But there are priorities....

Instead of spraying with chemicals that kill every insect there is a virus that infects the larvals and it multiply itself till all larvals are dead.

Works very well, but I never saw it in Thailand, only in Europe, and I don't hope that this government get any good ideas.

Sounds like a useable method. No environmental damage, let's hope. Oh my but those persistent pests are difficult to love.

I remember some Canadian varieties as particularly fierce. Although most people can easily outrun them, if you look back over your shoulder you'll see hundreds trying to gain on you. They've been known to take-down Caribou in the Tundra.

PingManDan · May 12, 2012

No need down our way, we've had no rain, papers calling Petchaburi province a drought disaster zone

siampolee · May 12, 2012

Seriously though, does anyone in their correct frame of mind think this project is a feasible one ?

Possibly there is a reasonable sum of money on the table for the project which of course will and indeed does attract other odious bothersome pests.

bedrock · May 12, 2012

Someone will get a buzz out of this idea , but not me TIT will forever be , maybe the Thais will infect the mozzies ever thought about that ????????

cowslip · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

One thing at a time. First they'll take care of the mosquito problem. Then they will have time to fix the environment. Then they can create flood-retention areas. Then they can fill them in to stop the mosquitoes. Then they can fix the environment. Then they can create more flood-retention areas. Then they can.....

Don't try to criticize the lack of foresight and overall planning. "This is Thailand. You don't understand the Thai way."

"one thing at a time" is precisely the method that causes problems - the mosquito thing needs to be tackled holistically.

You can't simply remove a biomass that size from the eco-system without knock-on effects (short-term and long-term) - preventing it from carrying the virus and other prophylactic measures would make more sense in the long run.

Edited May 12, 2012 by cowslip

tomross46 · May 12, 2012

What was the Health Minister doing when Thailand was flooded. You should also take into consideration that the killing of mosqutio in the breeding grounds will also affect the fish.

fxe1200 · May 12, 2012

A crackdown on mosquitoes, great idea. They could start to eliminate all these government owned home made breeding grounds, like open waste water channels.

That would be half the rent already, and there would be still enough mosquitoes for our birds, geckos and fish. My recommendation for the government is to turn on the brain first, and then make a decision how to act. The solution is NOT to spray lakes with diesel fuel.

monty1412 · May 12, 2012

My lord, you are all a bunch of cynics.

Who can but doubt the imminent success that will be had with this program. Just like the zero road deaths in songkran program.

First we will see a government announcement then a plaque of biblical proportions of mozzies and then the government will declare the program a success.

Oh yeah of little faith

h90 · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

Of course it is bad for the ecology. But there are priorities....

Instead of spraying with chemicals that kill every insect there is a virus that infects the larvals and it multiply itself till all larvals are dead.

Works very well, but I never saw it in Thailand, only in Europe, and I don't hope that this government get any good ideas.

Sounds like a useable method. No environmental damage, let's hope. Oh my but those persistent pests are difficult to love.

I remember some Canadian varieties as particularly fierce. Although most people can easily outrun them, if you look back over your shoulder you'll see hundreds trying to gain on you. They've been known to take-down Caribou in the Tundra.

I read from Siberia that there can be so many that you suffocate. As they wear protection similar to beekeeper I guess not even vodka helps.

theajarn · May 12, 2012

Oh thank God it's an all-out war. I thought it might just be another "crack down".

So Thailand declares "war" on mosquitoes. Uh-huh. Ok. End of story.

I mean sure, there might be more to it, like how they intend to educate the population etc etc. but obviously the newspaper knows people aren't interested in these details. They're only interested in the headline.

So yeah. End of story.

Sparkles · May 12, 2012

Love the crack downs .....drugs ,mosquitoes , brothels, gambling dens .Pity there is not a crack down on the illiterate thugs that have their noses in the baht trough. ie Government officials

got to be a

few baht in this one !

mikebell · May 12, 2012

On this subject , here is an article I wrote for Pattaya Daily News:

The Female of the Species

Rudyard Kipling argued that the female of the species is more deadly than the male. There is one particular species inhabiting the environs of Pattaya where I wholeheartedly agree. It is an irritating little bastard at best and deadly at worst. I am not talking about motor-cycle taxi drivers; I am talking about something that breeds faster than Katoys; something that laid Cheryl Cole low and I don’t mean ©Ashley, irritating little bastard that he is. I refer of course to the anopheles mosquito – the only one that transmits malaria to man. There’s the other one that shares dengue fever with its bitees but this operates during the day and is a bigger target for those deeply satisfying electric tennis rackets.

Only the female bites as she needs a blood meal before she can lay her eggs. Besides blood these pests also need water in which to lay their eggs. Singapore virtually eradicated them by educating the populace to hoover up any standing water so stopping any egg-laying. If only that were possible in Thailand – educating the populace I mean.

A clever man made himself a dollar millionaire by anthropomorphizing female mosquitoes. Working on the principal that most females develop a headache when love is in the air, he ‘invented’ a device which exactly imitated the mating whine of the male mosquito, (which incidentally lives exclusively on fruit juice.) On hearing this ‘Geronimo’ cry she would seek quieter pastures. Only some kill-joy scientists spoiled a good story and proved that if the device made any noise at all, it certainly didn’t scare off females.

I have been told I exude a powerful musk that females find irresistible; Lek told me if you must know, and she even told me its name: eau de satang. Where ever I go, I get bitten, especially down soi 6 in those dark bars. My son told me they only bite dirty, sweaty people, though I think he was getting concerned about my personal hygiene once I found I didn’t need to shower to become popular with the ladies hereabouts. It made no difference, smelly or fragrant I still got bitten.

They track you via carbon dioxide, so all you need to do to keep clear of mosquitoes is to stop breathing. Their eyesight is very poor and so they could not tell the difference between an oil drum and a body except by heat sensors. I gave up trundling an oil drum around with me as it was a great conversation inhibitor. ‘Where your oil drum come from?’

There are repellents which contain something called deet which work for two hours or so. In 7 – 11 shops there is something called ‘yagon yung’. This works brilliantly for a long time and is inexpensive. It is fine so long as you are not going courting and you don’t mind the odd bout of skin cancer. I did gain temporary respite when I married a farang lady who was even more appetizing to mosquitoes than me but that was no basis for a marriage so we parted.

I’ve contacted Bill and Melinda Gates as they appear to be taking my problem very seriously and are spending millions of dollars a year in the fight against malaria. I think I see a solution but as yet don’t know how to patent it. Surely when we can clone sheep, unravel the human genome and produce genetically modified foodstuffs, we can isolate male mosquito genes. My idea is we can produce billions of sexually voracious males who would drive off the normal males. By tinkering with their genes we can make this new male impotent or capable of producing only male offspring. Within only a few generations we would have only katoey mosquitoes which do not need my blood. Next problem.

h90 · May 12, 2012

Oh thank God it's an all-out war. I thought it might just be another "crack down".

So Thailand declares "war" on mosquitoes. Uh-huh. Ok. End of story.

I mean sure, there might be more to it, like how they intend to educate the population etc etc. but obviously the newspaper knows people aren't interested in these details. They're only interested in the headline.

So yeah. End of story.

An official declaration of war against the mosquitonian empire

sgtsabai · May 12, 2012

^{We have mosquitoes here in Udon, thankfully they aren't very aggressive and the wife is a good mosquito killer. I'm better but everybody freaks out over the smell from the spray. I grew up in real mosquito country, SE Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast. If the amount of mosquitoes that manage to make it into my house here (I can't convince anybody what the hell a screen door is supposed to be closed for) were like those where I grew up it would be unbearable. How the first settlers survived, I don't have a clue. The Karankawa Indians used alligator grease, but they weren't too friendly and the good 'ol boys wiped them out. In my time there were trucks spraying what was probably DDT in a fog, diesel on the marsh, and then airplanes that spray today with the more "correct" chemicals" that only kill mosquitoes when they are airborne. After Hurricane Rita the Air Force had to come in with C-130's and while I don't know (don't want to know) what they sprayed, it was deadly and about the only way we could survive the onslaught. I don't think we will be seeing any spray planes around here. BTW, I hate mosquitoes and most people that complain over here don't have a clue. I have seen them so bad in the states that from my car to my door, approx. 10 feet, I would get bitten at least 20 times.}

Edited May 12, 2012 by george

frank2611 · May 12, 2012

Dengue fever must be eradicated. Have you people seen the long term effect on people. Wake up and let hem try to do their jobs. Bugger the mossie.

drdoom6996 · May 12, 2012

On behalf of the ching chook population, I protest.

Maybe one of your loved ones will be next and you can dispose of the attitude. Or do you drink the bs you come up with?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

drdoom6996 · May 12, 2012

Well I for one will be happy with no mosquitoes.

But what will be the impact on the ecology. Will the destruction of some of the breeding areas add to flood problems if a flood should arise.

There is how ever a lot of little things people can do on their own premisses. That will lessen the problem a little bit.

One thing at a time. First they'll take care of the mosquito problem. Then they will have time to fix the environment. Then they can create flood-retention areas. Then they can fill them in to stop the mosquitoes. Then they can fix the environment. Then they can create more flood-retention areas. Then they can.....

Don't try to criticize the lack of foresight and overall planning. "This is Thailand. You don't understand the Thai way."

Afraid you are looking in the mirror I do understand the Thai way Next month it will be a thing of history.

The Thai way for hundreds of years has been to ignore them.

You are trying to force Western ways on to them.

Despite the fact that as has already been pointed out there are ways to do it with out poisoning the environment but they would still have a big effect on all the fish and other wild life that live on them.

It is my understanding that there are some thing like 400 different types of mosquito's and only a few are harmful.

Never been there but Chiang Mai has a insect museum run by the worlds foremost expert on mosquito's.

I have been here for 25 years. We have told the Thai's that we are smarter than them for 35 years. Until about 10 years they thought we were carzy. Now they all want to be like us. In gangs that steal and mug tourists. Transparent governments with opaque windows. Sonkran used to be a nice fun holiday. Until we brought the squirt guns from the west. And all the oil field trash showed them how to use PVC to knock someone off a motorbike.

And by the way infected mosquito's are a much greater health and eclolgolical problem than getting rid of them. Many countries have already done it, and some of these are in Africa. If they can do it, so can the Asians.

One day your son or daughter will get this like mine did. You will get off you high horses then.

finnomick1 · May 12, 2012

...and the new school term begins in errrrr................4 DAYS FROM TODAY !!!!! Nothing like leaving it 'til the last minute

Thai at Heart · May 12, 2012

I took the mozzie nets off the ground floor of my house on advice. No mozzies in the ground floor whatsoever coz they can come and go as they please, instead of getting trapped. Kept them upstairs, maybe will take them off up there too.

peergin · May 12, 2012

In Hong Kong it has been against the law for many, many decades to have mosquito-breeding areas on one's property. Any found by or reported to the police (for example, by neighbours) results in a substantial fine. Result: there are hardly any mosquitos. No chemical sprays, no damage to the environment, nothing. Brilliant!

blackthorn2005 · May 12, 2012

I hope they do not forget Phuket, Nanai Road, Patong has had at least 2 cases of dengue fever recently!

Pinot · May 12, 2012

I fear 10 year olds driving motorbikes more than dengue fever.

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