3-year-old dies; 2 more children found with hand, foot and mouth disease

BANGKOK, 10 January 2014 (NNT) – The Ministry of Public Health has dispatched health officials to schools and communities where hand-foot-and-mouth disease was reported on Thursday. Meanwhile a kindergartner in Bangkok has succumbed to the disease.

According to the ministry, 2 more children have been diagnosed with the disease. Their conditions were not serious. The school with the outbreak has been ordered to close for 6 days so clean-up can commence.

School staff have also been asked to check for disease symptoms among the students. If any child is found with fever and vesicle-type skin lesion, he/she must be isolated from other children and the Department of Disease Control notified. Health officials said people should wash their hands regularly to prevent disease contraction.

3 people lost their lives to the disease in 2013, out of a total of 44,594 patients. The strains found in Thailand can cause complications such as brain stem encephalitis, abnormal heart function, and heart failure.


-- NNT 2014-01-10

There's a massive hole in this article.

What school? Where?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Health inspectors should inspect the food that is being served in private schools that have separate eating facilities for English/ Chines programs and Thai programs in the next BTS station up from the Seladang station (I've forgotten the name of the BTS Station) and have a look at the food served to the Thai program kids and the filthy conditions that the kindergarten kids as well as the primary kids have to eat in. which is totally different to the other program.

A colleagues child goes to the school, which is on Rama IV.

There have been a number of false accusations directed at the school. The strain which infected the child was thought to have been contracted while the family were travelling up north in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai during the New Years break according to the Thai CDC. There was a similar fatality earlier in the year there and given the incubation period, it would have been impossible for the child to contract, or spread, the virus given the school break.

The school nevertheless is taking ever possible precaution, and of course, all parents are being kept informed.

Health officials said people should wash their hands regularly to prevent disease contraction

Agreed. Something so simple as washing ones hands can be the difference between possible life and death.

One problem though, there is no soap anywhere! Especially in schools

Or, most of the time, no paper towels or anything else hygienic for drying one's hands, after washing.

Health officials said people should wash their hands regularly to prevent disease contraction

Agreed. Something so simple as washing ones hands can be the difference between possible life and death.

One problem though, there is no soap anywhere! Especially in schools

Thousands of schools will have a tub and bowl, rather than tap basin and soap. and at home what do near all rural kids have ??? tin sheet shack, rendered block trough, and a plastic bowl.------------why do they not have 10 baht T from the tap up to a corner pipe and shower head affixed 150 baht. no mozzies from a trough.

Half the price of a monthly 300 baht mobile top up. I am no plumber ---but half meter of pvc pipe, pipe glue finished.

this is also a help for hand/body cleanliness at home.

Worse, maybe, is ONE towel hanging on a string for the whole school. Children use it and don't know what bacteria are. When looking for a kindergarten school for my girl, I looked at one school that had ONE stainless drinking cup on the water dispenser for about 40 children. All this "toughens" some up, and KILLS others. A "dipping dish" to flush the Thai style or tankless toilets. What kind of stuff is on the edge of that dish? Then no soap, maybe not even a sink. Nurses and doctors must know better than this. Doesn't Thailand care about it's children? Sanitation education would be one of my first priorities if I headed up the Thai educational system. Is the problem administrators, lack of funding, what?

How about putting up soap dispensers in the school bathrooms and teach the kids to wash their hands after they went to the toilet?

A colleagues child goes to the school, which is on Rama IV.

There have been a number of false accusations directed at the school. The strain which infected the child was thought to have been contracted while the family were travelling up north in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai during the New Years break according to the Thai CDC. There was a similar fatality earlier in the year there and given the incubation period, it would have been impossible for the child to contract, or spread, the virus given the school break.

The school nevertheless is taking ever possible precaution, and of course, all parents are being kept informed.

Yes it's very sad. Just found out the grandparents are friends with my wife, and they adored the child.

Dear oh dear; and i remember well how Thaksin turned around and shouted at reporters one day... ''Thailand is already a developed country '' !!

I caught hand, foot and mouth disease a few years ago. Actually not exactly sure where I caught it as I was on a business trip and the illness kicked in the night I returned to Bangkok.

Felt unwell in the evening but thought it was just being tired from flying around. The next morning I had a nasty headache and was in pain. The missus said I was burning and immediately carted me off to hospital. I was running a 41c temp. Sores developed over the next few days in the mouth/throat, hands and feet. Lost 4kgs in 5days.

My son contracted that last October, I believe from school. But made a full recovery in days. I hope it happens to one once and you get the natural immunity.

There's a massive hole in this article.What school? Where?Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Maybe the reporter is afraid of Thailand's naming and shaming laws?

and the response from the Director Public Health???