Test Ordered In Death Of 2 Year-Old Child: HFMD Outbreak

[webfact]

HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH

Test ordered in death of 2 year-old

The Nation

Number of schools hit rises to 34 as disease outbreak continues

BANGKOK: -- A detailed lab test is now ongoing to determine whether a two-year-old child succumbed to hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) on Tuesday.

The child died of heartmuscle inflammation at the Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital.

"The cause of the inflammation is not known. We need a lab test to determine whether it is related to the HFMD," hospital director Passakorn Chaiwanich said.

Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit said the initial test ruled out HFMD as the cause of death but moredetailed lab tests are ongoing.

"We may know the result in five days," he said. The recent outbreak of HFMD has claimed dozens of lives in Cambodia. However, Thai authorities have insisted that the strains spreading in Cambodia are more severe than the strains usually found in Thailand.

So far this year, 13,918 cases of HFMD have been reported. Emerging Infectious Diseases Bureau director and Disease Control Department spokesman Dr Rungruang Kitpati yesterday said the spread of HFMD in Thailand was now reaching its peak in terms of the number of cases.

"We believe HFMD will be spreading for four to six more weeks. After that, the outbreak will ease," Rungruang said.

HFMD is hitting more schools, including the prestigious Wattana Wittaya Academy and Bangkok Christian College.

The number of schools suspending some classes or closing down the whole facilities in the wake of HFMD outbreak yesterday rose to 34 from 29 on Tuesday.

"There are four students coming down with HFMD at the Wattana Wittaya Academy," Office of Private Education Commission secretary general Charnwit Tapsupan said.

Another source said there were between eight and nine students catching HFMD at the Bangkok Christian College.

Disease Control Department directorgeneral Dr Pornthep Siriwanarangsan said if more than two students in the same the class caught HFMD, that class should be suspended.

"If there are more than five students with HFMD at the same school, that school should close down for about one week," he said.

HFMD is usually spread among children, mostly under five years of age.

Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej urged schools to transparently report cases of HFMD.

"Don't try to cover them up. We need accurate information to provide timely and efficient control of the disease," he explained.

In Kanchanaburi, the Tessaban 3 (Ban Bor) School in Muang Kanchanaburi district suspended four of its classes for seven days after two students were diagnosed with HFMD. The suspension has affected 170 children.

"We have already contacted the Kanchanaburi publichealth office to ask for the disinfectantspraying services," school director Bussaba Kanwareetip said.

According to her, all the HFMDaffected students are in the Pathom 2 class. Their cases were first detected on Tuesday.

Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Science yesterday announced that it was ready to provide disinfectant gel or spray for free to interested schools.

"The gel and spray produced by us are highly effective against HFMD," said Prof Dr Sopon Roengsumran, a chemistry teacher.

Sopon said the common disinfectant gels and sprays in the market are not effective against the HFMD because of their content, 70 per cent of which was ethyl alcohol.

"For HFMD, ethyl alchohol must be 90 per cent," he said.

-- The Nation 2012-07-19

[jaltsc]

I find it amazing that most (if not all) nations mobilize all its resources when there is only a minimal threat from a perceived outside aggressor, but are complacent when a "real" enemy has already invaded that nation. HFMD is here and it is real. If allowed to progress it will kill more citizens than any foreign force has killed. It is time to mobilize every resource to fight this disease before it gets out of hand. Send health safety teams to every part of the nation in order to educate and implement safety standards. They can utilize the same personnel that is used for the war on drugs. After all, more people will be killed by HFMD than by illegal drugs, and all the fatalities will be innocent victims. Plus, these actions will also help prevent future epidemics.

[erobando]

The mortality rate of HFMD is pretty low. A child is much more likely to die after contracting the flu.

In June, China reported 17 deaths out of about 35,000 infections.

Death rates in almost every recorded outbreak of the disease have been about 1 death in every 5,000 cases.

[webfact]

Toddler’s death unrelated to hand, foot, mouth disease: Health Ministry

BANGKOK, July 19 – Thailand’s Public Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed that the cause of death of a two-year-old child at Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital in suburban Bangkok was unrelated to the ongoing hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) epidemic.

Permanent Secretary for Health Paichit Varachit explained that the child died from an encephalitis-related swelling of the brain and heart failure (acute myocarditis). The official emphasized that the death was not caused by the HFMD contagion. Confirmation on the cause of death will be released soon, he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Paichit instructed the heads of provincial health offices nationwide via video conference to curb the spread of the contagion within six weeks and urged paediatricians to closely monitor the outbreak among the country’s children.

Hospitals must report clinical emergency situations to health-related agencies, the permanent secretary said, assigning provincial health offices to closely coordinate with kindergartens as well as nursery and childcare centres.

If more than 10 children contracting the hand, foot and mouth disease were found in each province, the health office must set up a monitoring centre to follow up and control the disease to prevent possible outbreak-related deaths as well.

Dr Paichit admitted that the spread of the contagion has reportedly been found in all regions of the country.

In a related development, the Education Ministry, the Public Health Ministry and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will jointly set up monitoring centre tomorrow in order to educate prevention measures, distribute disinfectants to schools.

The two ministries will ink a collaboration agreement to fight the ongoing outbreak as well.

The centre is intended to keep a close watch on the situation, combat the outbreak in Bangkok schools and speed up making the capital to be the HFMD-free zone as soon as possible, according to Charnwit Tapsuphan, acting on behalf of the secretary-general of the Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC).

Meanwhile, Bangkok Christian College (BCC), a private boys school in Sathorn Road conducted a thorough cleaning to curb the spread of the virus-caused disease after nine primary students and two secondary students were shown to be infected.

BCC has suspended classes and plans to reopen Monday (July 23), deputy director Penchan Wattanamongkol said.

The school will screen all students as prevention measures Monday before resuming classes. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-07-19