Floods Generate About 20,000 New Patients Daily

[george]

Floods generate about 20,000 new patients daily

BANGKOK: -- About 20,000 new patients are coming to hospitals suffering severely from flood-related maladies on a daily basis and most are affected by hand, foot and mouth disease, a spokesman of the Public Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Doctors from several provinces had been reassigned to three central provinces -- Ang Thong, Sing Buri and Ayutthaya -- where the number of flood patients increased by about 20,000 a day.

Some 7 per cent of flood victims are now suffering from mild stress caused by extensive flooding, he said, adding that Dr. Prat Boonyawongvirot, Permanent Secrerary for Public Health, planned to visit flood victims in Ang Thong and Sing Buri provinces on Sunday.

According to the ministry, a total of 427,897 people have reported flood-related from the end of August until the present. Of the total, more than 270,000 people suffer from hand, foot and mouth disease.

Meanwhile, Ang Thong Hospital director Dr. Niran Chantrakul said that as flooding has affected the province for almost three weeks now, around 40 per cent of about 240 patients who had registered with the hospital had missed their follow-up hospital appointments with medical staff.

Their failure to meet their doctors would worsen their conditions, especially for those suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Dr. Niran said he had decided to send doctors to follow-up the status of their patients at their homes without charge.

--TNA 2006-10-21