The killer that won't die

By Supamart Kasem

Tak

A total of 12,784 malaria patients were admitted to hospitals in Tak in the first four months of the year - more than any other province and the worst outbreak since 1999.

Provincial health official Patchuban Hemhongsa said the admission figures are from hospitals in five districts, Jan 1 to the end of April.

About three-quarters of the patients, or 9,497, were migrant Burmese workers.

To contain the spread of the disease, surveillance units had been set up in remote villages where most cases were reported, he said.

Health workers had also begun distributing insecticide-coated mosquito nets to keep the anopheles mosquito, the carrier of malaria, at bay.

Mr Patchuban said the chemical coating was not harmful to human beings and was effective for as long as five years, surviving all washing during that time.

He did not name the chemical.

However, companies which sell mosquito nets over the internet advertise them as coated with deltamethrin, saying it gives four to five years of protection. Deltamethrin is said to be one of the safest classes of pesticides, synthetic pyrethroids, and is commonly used in ant chalk.

Mr Patchuban said although this year's figures were high, they were not as bad as in 1999, when 80,122 patients were reported treated for malaria in the province.

At least 50 people have sought treatment for malaria at the Mae Tao clinic each day this month, he said.

Last year, more than 8,000 Burmese immigrant workers were admitted to the clinic and 30 died of the disease.

Mr Patchuban said malaria is curable, provided the patient seeks medical attention immediately. If the patient does not receive treatment in time, the disease can infect the brain and in the worse cases lead to death.

Mr Patchuban also voiced concern about an increase in drug resistance among people infected with tuberculosis, especially those who are HIV-positive.

He attributed the increase in drug resistance to a lack of continuous treatment.

Currently, 70 per cent of tuberculosis patients were receiving regular treatment.

But the remaining 30 per cent were not and were at risk of contracting the disease again, Mr Patchuban said.