30 Schools Closed By Disease Threat

[Jai Dee]

30 schools closed by disease threat

259 students have symptoms of hand, foot and mouth virus; Sai Mai worst-hit

Thirty schools in Bangkok have been closed for 15 days following an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease, a source at the city's Health Department said yesterday.

Symptoms of the disease - high fever, a rash and blisters on hands, feet and mouth - were found in 259 pupils at 30 schools in 20 districts, the source said.

Sai Mai district was the worst affected, with 60 cases.

The schools would be disinfected to kill the communicable disease's viral species, which includes Coxsackie virus type A and B and Anterovirus 71.

The sick students had been placed under medical supervision, the source said.

Hand, foot and mouth disease can be passed on via direct contact with contaminated saliva, excrement or nasal discharge and there is no cure; doctors only provide treatments according to symptoms. In worst cases the disease can lead to fatal lung or brain infection and heart failure.

Between January and the end of July, some 1,009 cases were found, mostly in children aged between two and five, with four children dying of the disease, the head of the Disease Control Department, Thawat Sunthajan, said.

The Public Health Ministry has been urging childcare centres to dispose of faeces properly and to take children with symptoms to a doctor immediately. Teachers were asked to thoroughly wash their hands after changing nappies and before preparing meals.

Related agencies were also asked to regularly check the amount of chlorine in tap water and swimming pools to ensure it was at least 1 milligram per litre.

Meanwhile, caretaker Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat said nearly 14 million Thais had diabetes and high-blood pressure - but nine million of them did not know.

Pinij said the ministry would implement a policy next year of using health stations and volunteers to help prevent and cut the amount of people stricken with cardiovascular disease, HIV/Aids, cancer, diabetes, and emphysema. Altogether, these diseases killed nearly 100,000 Thais a year, he said.

The ministry also aims to employ more staff over the next three years for its 9,765 health stations so that each has five workers, instead of the current three per station, permanent secretary for Health Prat Boonyawongwirot said.

Source: The Nation - 15 September 2006

[Jai Dee]

BKK Gov refuses news claiming that 30 schools have been temporarily closed because of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease

Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayothin (อภิรักษ์ โกษะโยธิน) has denied that all 30 schools have been temporarily closed because of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

He said that only one school has been ordered to temporarily close down after 10 of its students have been found to contract the disease. The school is situated in Wang Thong Land District, and it has been ordered to halt its operation for 15 days, starting yesterday.

Mr. Apirak has assigned medical centers to inspect the possible spread of the foot-and-mouth disease and they will report their findings to him today.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Bangkok, Mr. Wanlop Suwandee (วัลลภ สุวรรณดี), has been assigned to take care of the children who have contracted the disease. He has instructed medical officials to follow up on their conditions while requesting teachers and parents to help observe them as well. He said that the disease is airborne and can be easily contracted through direct contact.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 September 2006

[Scott]

Health and Sanitation in schools is a big problem. This stuff never surprises me, I just wish they could clean things up.

[Jai Dee]

BMA instructs educational inistitutes to observe the spread of foot-and-mouth disease

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has instructed all educational institutes to observe the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, while urging them to bring the contracted children to the hospitals.

The Deputy Governor of Bangkok, Mr. Wanlop Suwandee (วัลลภ สุวรรณดี), stated that 1,009 people in Thailand contracted the foot-and-mouth disease from January to July this year, and four patients died from the disease. Since May, 28 students in Bangkok have contracted the virus, but none of them have died from the contraction.

Mr. Wanlop has instructed all educational institutes to maintain their sanitation standard to prevent their students from contracting the disease. He has assigned teachers to take students with to the hospitals immediately if they show signs of illness.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 September 2006

[leisurely]

What do they mean by dispose of faeces properly. Surely the only way to dispose of faeces is in the toilet?

[Jai Dee]

Doctors fear hand, foot and mouth outbreak could be a mutated strain

Experts fear the virus that has caused the outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease in several Bangkok schools might be a mutated strain because it appears to be particularly virulent.

"We cannot say for sure the virus has mutated, but we suspect it is the cause of the considerably more-severe symptoms seen in some patients," said Dr Tawee Chotpitayasunondh, director of Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health. The ministry is studying the enterovirus 71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, to determine whether it is a mutated form or not, said Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak, the head of the Bureau of Epidemiology.

The ministry will have to compare the genetic profile of the strain found in recently infected Thai victims with those from cases in countries like Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, said the doctor.

"It is not just in Thailand. Enterovirus 71 seems to be becoming more virulent in those countries," Kumnuan said.

For example, during a 1998 outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease in Taiwan, up to 300,000 people were infected, and 78 died, Kumnuan said.

He added that medical officials suspected then a mutation was to blame for the severity, but they were unable to confirm it.

"It was still the same subtype B and C, but the clade [a group of biological species that comes from a common ancestor] of these subtypes may have changed. Further study is needed to be sure," said Kumnuan.

Four people died in Thailand this year of common hand, foot and mouth disease.

Nine people died of the severe type of the disease. In these cases the patients' symptoms were unclear. They suffered and died of complications, said Kumnuan.

Most of these cases were children younger than five years old, said the doctor. If the ministry's study confirms that the enterovirus 71 has mutated, the government will have to revise its disease-control measures, its method of diagnosis and the treatment, said Tawee.

Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat said that 1,360 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease had been reported this year.

Four people have died of the disease. There were close to 300 cases of the disease reported in Bangkok in the past year.

In the past week, at least nine schools in Bangkok have been temporarily shut down because of the outbreak, said Pinij. He said a rapid response unit is on call around the clock to control the disease.

If someone is infected, he or she must not go to school. If more than five cases of the disease are reported at the same school, that school would be shut down until the disease was contained, said Pinij.

Source: The Nation - 16 September 2006

[Jai Dee]

City orders probe on report of boy died of foot and mouth disease

Bangkok's public health department has ordered investigation into a report that a young student of a Bangkok school on Sathorn Road died of foot and mouth disease.

The department is waiting for laboratory blood test of the six-year-old boy who died during the weekend after being rushed to a hospital, Sitthisat Jiamwongpaet, the department's director said.

If confirmed, the boy would be the fifth victim of the disease in Bangkok.

Declining to name the school, Sitthisat said his department has ordered spraying disinfectant at the school. Following the death of the student, that school authority decided to close the school for three days, starting on Tuesday.

He dismissed a report that about 20 schools in Wangtonglang district were closed after learning of the spreading of the disease.

Source: The Nation - 19 September 2006

[Jai Dee]

Knowlege on HFMD will be provided in private schools in BKK

The Office of the Private Education Commission is coordinating with the Public Health Service Center of Bangkok in providing the knowledge of Hand-Foot-And-Mouth Disease (HFMD) to private schools.

Md. Charnchai Kumpong, the Deputy Director of the Health Department in Bangkok, said he held a meeting with the officials from the Private Education Commission, to seek for ways to solve the HFMD epidemic in private schools. He said the Public Health Service Center of Bangkok has been assigned to educate people in private schools about the disease. The schools will be told to organize a meeting with the students’ guardians before the opening of the next semester. Thus, students would be more careful and protective from HFMD. If many students are found to contract the disease in a certain school, the institute will be temporarily closed down so officials can cleanse and disinfect the area.

Md. Charnchai said from January 1st to September 14th this year, 300 people suffered from HFMD, and five of them had died.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 25 September 2006

[Ijustwannateach]

I'm glad to see they're finally talking about this publicly. Kids have already died and schools have been shut down for decontamination. Apparently, the usual symptoms are suppressed and the kids die with very little warning. If you have small children especially it's a concern.

"Steven"

[Ijustwannateach]

P.S., the "Bangkok school on Sathorn Road" which has repeatedly attempted to avoid being mentioned in the many negative news articles it has starred in this year is once again Bangkok Christian College.