Dengue situation in Northeastern part of Thailand worrisome

[Rorri]

Wow I`ve got a lot to learn... So Farang is looked down upon? Someone to exploit? I`m in a bit of trouble maybe...Hmmm I need to start another thread on this but getting back to this Dengue fever my gf is pregnant and she is in A north eastern province I am concerned about her getting this and also is the white smoke they use an insecticide? Is it safe? last year in a Hotel in Suphan Buri they sprayed this smoke through out hotel lobby. I cleared out and wondered If in Thailand being a poorish country whether they are up to date with Saftey issues like do they still use DDT for example. Cheers

There are NO safety issues, simply because Thais do not practise safety, therefore no issues.

[Robbie Dye]

So how we deal with decorative ponds? Empty them I guess. Better reove the small fish first although I think they eat the mossie eggs soanswer is buy loads of these small black fish and put them in any stagnant water? I dont tho quite see what SSSlongtime is getting at? Bad drivers should be off the roads killing mosquites?

[Sheryl]

So how we deal with decorative ponds? Empty them I guess. Better reove the small fish first although I think they eat the mossie eggs soanswer is buy loads of these small black fish and put them in any stagnant water? I dont tho quite see what SSSlongtime is getting at? Bad drivers should be off the roads killing mosquites?

There is a drug you can get to add to ponds and other stagnant water, brand name Abate (generic: temephos) will kill mosquito larvae. In some places the it is handed out for people to add to their water jars, supposedly safe for humans and other mammals when used in recommended dose. Approved in the the US for use in drinking water. effect on fish not clear though.

Unfortunately I don't know where one could buy this. It is supposed to be distributed free by the local public health authorities. Could try asking at your local government Health Center.

[Preman]

There are several types of Dengue.. The worst one kills. I actually was on the receiving end of the worst one, - some five years ago in Chiang Mai. A very hard experience to go through and I feel lucky that I survived.

Normally, we all have about 225,000 red blood platelets, with Dengue - your red blood platelets drop rapidly. Mine dropped to 65,000. The doctor said that at around 50,000 to 55,000 - it is all over. I was lucky. I feel so sorry for these people who get this.

The doctor told me however, - that I can not get that particular strain of Dengue again (I hope he is right). But, apparently I can get the other strains multiple times.

For you folks who are familiar with Chiang Mai, - the best doctor in my opinion is at the clinic on Loi Kroh Road. He has a lab upstairs and does the blood tests within hours.

I echo what others have already said, - many Thais do not even bother to go to the doctor - for whatever reason - monetary or otherwise. So, when you see a epidemic like this, - the real numbers are probably many fold more.

If you experience fever, - get it checked out straight away.

[retell]

they came with the smoke-engine near my house 2 days ago but before i could ask them to walk around my house they were nowhere to be found

my neighbour's place got a full blast could not see the house for 10 minutes so are some of the other houses but somehow they " forgot" to do the farang house

probably the house is so big that they could not see it ?

Well i had this in January, Bangkok Pattaya hospital reported to the government. 2 days after i was released from hospital they came to my house asked me and my family if we could leave for 24 hours so they could smoke the house and garden. They did and they also did the whole village the following week...so don't say they never care about Farang...it is getting old.

They go where ever the gates are opened in our neighborhood. Open the gate and they come through the yard, but leave it closed and they go to the next yard.

So far this season they've fumigated 5 times on our block... at intervals to catch the new fry that may have been eggs a week or so earlier.

I'd love it if they'd fumigate directly into the street gutters - since that seems the most likely remaining breeding place after people check their yards.

my house has no gate or walls around

[Mudcrab]

It is not just the Northeast. It is the whole region: all of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, even Singapore.

Dengue is always endemic here but every 2-3 years there is an epidemic and this is one of those years.

The guilty mosquito has a very limited flight path so you will almost always be bitten close to where it breeds. Water jars are a major source but any stagnant water will do.

Since it doesn't fly very far, you can greatly reduce your risks by clearing out any stagnant water areas and being sure any water jars are securely covered (I use mosquito netting over it PLUS a lid).

That will help prevent getting it at home,. Still need to take care when you go out. the fresh markets are especially bad as lots of water standing about. Put plenty of repellent on before you go places like that.

At last some common sense - empty any water containers around the house. And it may not be the obvious ones....have a look around...and old empty tin/can can have a little water in it - enough for the larvae to develop. If you really do need to have some sort of open water container near the house pour a little kerosene/paraffin (whatever you call it) on top of the water. The mosquito larvae need to "breathe" air by pushing part of their body through the water/air interface. the oil solution stops them doing this so they die. Remember these mozzies live around the home...the ones living in rice paddies aren't the ones to worry about.

[Mudcrab]

There's been several cases in our village between Ubon and Sisaket. One of the cases is 3 houses away from us, and with 2 very young children dengue has been something I've always been very worried about and its now literally on my doorstep.

Nobody here seems too bothered by it as they just think you just have to drink Sprite and some kind of sauce and you will be better the next day!!

Does the Aedes mosquito have to bite someone who has had dengue at any point in their life or just if that person is sick with it now to pass the disease onto someone else?

Apparently the mosquito must bite the infected person during a particular part of that person's infection/disease cycle.

from wikipedia:

Humans are the primary host of the virus, but it also circulates in nonhuman primates. An infection can be acquired via a single bite. A female mosquito that takes a blood meal from a person infected with dengue fever, during the initial 2–10 day febrile period, becomes itself infected with the virus in the cells lining its gut. About 8–10 days later, the virus spreads to other tissues including the mosquito's salivary glands and is subsequently released into its saliva. The virus seems to have no detrimental effect on the mosquito, which remains infected for life. Aedes aegypti prefers to lay its eggs in artificial water containers, to live in close proximity to humans, and to feed on people rather than other vertebrates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever

One of the difficulties with controlling dengue is that those infected often have no idea that they have received the virus-- 80% of people who get it are asymptomatic, or display only a mild fever. It thus is difficult to map or eliminate. Perhaps obviously, there is no preventive inoculation available at this time.

Be careful of science based on Wikipedia!!!! Mozzies can acquire the virus from many hosts.....pigs etc.

[partington]

There's been several cases in our village between Ubon and Sisaket. One of the cases is 3 houses away from us, and with 2 very young children dengue has been something I've always been very worried about and its now literally on my doorstep.

Nobody here seems too bothered by it as they just think you just have to drink Sprite and some kind of sauce and you will be better the next day!!

Does the Aedes mosquito have to bite someone who has had dengue at any point in their life or just if that person is sick with it now to pass the disease onto someone else?

Apparently the mosquito must bite the infected person during a particular part of that person's infection/disease cycle.

from wikipedia:

Humans are the primary host of the virus, but it also circulates in nonhuman primates. An infection can be acquired via a single bite. A female mosquito that takes a blood meal from a person infected with dengue fever, during the initial 2–10 day febrile period, becomes itself infected with the virus in the cells lining its gut. About 8–10 days later, the virus spreads to other tissues including the mosquito's salivary glands and is subsequently released into its saliva. The virus seems to have no detrimental effect on the mosquito, which remains infected for life. Aedes aegypti prefers to lay its eggs in artificial water containers, to live in close proximity to humans, and to feed on people rather than other vertebrates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever

One of the difficulties with controlling dengue is that those infected often have no idea that they have received the virus-- 80% of people who get it are asymptomatic, or display only a mild fever. It thus is difficult to map or eliminate. Perhaps obviously, there is no preventive inoculation available at this time.

Be careful of science based on Wikipedia!!!! Mozzies can acquire the virus from many hosts.....pigs etc.

Please quote your sources or don't make these kinds of claims. Pigs are not a significant source of Dengue viruses according to any evidence. (As you may be able to tell, I've been reading up about Dengue over the last few days!)

1. The WHO state that there is no animal reservoir for Dengue: http://www.who.int/vaccine_research/diseases/vector/en/

2. The clinician's "bible" for tropical disease medicine: 'Manson's Tropical Disease', eds. G. C. Cook and A.L. Zumla, 22nd edition (2009) Saunders , Chapter 41 Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, p 753 says:

"Dengue virus is transmitted from human to human by mosquito

bites. Man is the main reservoir of the virus, though studies have

shown that the monkey is the jungle reservoir in Malaysia and

Africa.2"

3. A study in Thailand where researchers injected pigs with Dengue virus showed they were not able to be infected: http://www.afrims.org/weblib/eapr/1971/APR71p092-094.pdf

"We conclude from these results that pigs cannot be experimentally infected with dengue viruses, but they can be infected with JEV.

4. A recent review on arboriviruses (Dengue virus is an arborivirus) in the journal Antiviral Research (2010) 85 p238 emphasized that there is NO common animal host for Dengue http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2815176/

"Dengue viruses (DENV) Dengue viruses comprise four related serotypes (.....); however, unlike all other flaviviruses, DENVs that cause most human disease are not zoonoses, but exclusively utilize humans as reservoir and amplification hosts. Also unlike most arboviruses, they rely on transmission by mosquito vectors that live in close association with people;"

[shaolin69]

5 people die of the Dengue virus and 5000 people catch it - OK, that's not fun. But let's keep perspective...... from Wikipedia and the CDC: "The annual human flu in the U.S. results in approximately 36,000 deaths".

[barrybankruad]

So how we deal with decorative ponds? Empty them I guess. Better reove the small fish first although I think they eat the mossie eggs soanswer is buy loads of these small black fish and put them in any stagnant water? I dont tho quite see what SSSlongtime is getting at? Bad drivers should be off the roads killing mosquites?

There is a drug you can get to add to ponds and other stagnant water, brand name Abate (generic: temephos) will kill mosquito larvae. In some places the it is handed out for people to add to their water jars, supposedly safe for humans and other mammals when used in recommended dose. Approved in the the US for use in drinking water. effect on fish not clear though.

Unfortunately I don't know where one could buy this. It is supposed to be distributed free by the local public health authorities. Could try asking at your local government Health Center.

The local Rataban Health Department will have it. Sometimes they distribute it via the local headman. Ask your Pooyaiban to get, probably a good ides to get a supply for the whole village. It usually comes wrapped in small cloth bags which you simply drop into the water. If not easy to make yourself.

[cdnvic]

Please don't post any miracle cures, quackery, or conspiracy nonsense (removed). It will be deleted, and your posting ability removed. This is a serious issue, and we aren't going to subject our readers to nonsense.

[Sheryl]

Be careful of science based on Wikipedia!!!! Mozzies can acquire the virus from many hosts.....pigs etc.

You are confusing Dengue with Japanese B encephalitis, also mosquito borne and for which pigs are indeed a reservoir.

Pigs are not a reservoir for dengue.

[biplanebluey]

I've had it two times in the years I have been living here. If they truly cared about public health, how about getting the bad drivers off the road? Course then they would be empty....

YEA---------BAD DRIVERS CAUSE DENGE!!!!!!!!!!

[webfact]

UPDATE:

Dengue fever exacerbates in Isaan

BANGKOK, 9 July 2013 (NNT)-People have been warned against dengue fever outbreak as the number of patients in 4 North Eastern provinces has increased to 5,406, 5 of whom have reportedly succumbed to the disease.

Full story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/652385-dengue-fever-exacerbates-in-isaan/

[Sheryl]

Posts advocating dangerous (in fact, potentially fatal -- and fatalities have occurred) quack cures have been removed and will continue to so be. Persisting in posting same may lead to loss of posting privileges.

[Sheryl]

Closing this now as a single Dengue Thread has been established in the health forum to replace what had become multiple threads in multiple forums. The epidemic is not only nation-wide but region-wide.

See http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/652479-dengue-outbreak/ and please post any comments/questions regarding dengue there rather than starting any new threads. Thanks.