Thailand keeps on watching out HFMD

BANGKOK, July 26 (TNA) - Thai authorities have carried on their attempts to control the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), including the sanitization of public transit facilities. Thai Deputy Transport Minister Chatt Kuldiloke and Director-General of the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control Dr. Pornthep Siriwanarangsan supervised a cleanup of trains at the Hua Lamphong railway terminus in Bangkok Thursday morning. Similar activities organized by local authorities concerned also took place in Chiang Mai province in the Thai North, Chon Buri province in the Thai East, as well as Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces in the Thai South. Bangkok Christian College reopened Thursday, after a temporary closure last week when seven students fell sick. The college's staff, however, checked students and separated over 10 of them who showed high temperatures and other signs of illness for thorough examination. Health officials also checked kindergarteners and pupils in Chiang Rai province in the Thai North, where 989 patients have been diagnosed with the HFMD so far this year but no one have died from it. Early this month, there were as many as 227 new HFMD patients in Chiang Rai, prompting local health officials to have monitored the HFMD situation closely. Dr. Siraporn Sawasdiworn, Director of the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health in Bangkok, told journalists that HFMD cases have appeared to remain stable, with 538 HFMD outpatients and 41 inpatients treated at the institute last month and 751 outpatients and 10 inpatients treated this month. So far this year, the institute has treated 1,976 outpatients and 111 inpatients of the HFMD. There were 2,154 outpatients and 109 inpatients in 2010 and 2,311 outpatients and 109 inpatients last year. The figures show that, according to the senior health official, the HFMD now happens normally, as the present time is its epidemic season and it is expected to disperse next month. (TNA)