Thailand's Zika statistics based on WHO system

BANGKOK, August 30 (TNA) - Thailand's Department of Disease Control, under the Ministry of Public Health, says that its statistics on the Zika virus have been based on a system introduced by the World Health Organisation (WHO), showing that the situation remains under control in the country. The department's Director-General Dr. Amnuay Kajina told journalists of the information on Tuesday, urging the public to refer to the WHO system as its classifications meet world standards. Dr. Amnuay's remarks were in response to a report released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on August 19 in which Thailand was included in its red-stripped list of countries hit by outbreaks of the fatal Zika virus over the past three months. Dr. Amnuay explained that the ECDC classifications were different from those of WHO as his department had never officially shared any information about the deadly virus with ECDC and its August 19 report could, thus, be incomplete. Dr. Amnuay pointed out that ECDC had categorised the severity of the Zika virus by focusing only on the number of infected patients and not comprehensively covering areas where Zika virus cases were reported. According to the senior official, there have been Zika virus patients in 16 Thai provinces since the beginning of this year, with those in only six provinces remaining under a close observation of 28 days and those in two more provinces, namely Bangkok's neighbouring Samut Prakarn Province and Nong Khai Province, in the Thai Northeast to complete the 28-day close observation period by the end of this month. The senior official noted that after August 31, there will be only four Thai provinces where there are Zika patients under close observation, including Chiang Mai and Phetchabun in the Thai North, Bueng Kan in the Thai Northeast and Chantaburi in the Thai East. (TNA)