Thai PM leads anti-dengue fever campaign

BANGKOK, March 23 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has led a team of officials to join an anti-dengue fever campaign at Bangkok's Government House. Accompanied by Thai Public Health Minister Dr. Piyasakol Sakonsatayadorn and other senior public health and Government House officials, the prime minister walked around the compound of the government seat on Thursday morning to survey any possible breeding ground of common house mosquitoes, the carrier of dengue fever. The prime minister also released a catch of guppy fish and Abate Sand Granules into lotus basins to eliminate mosqutio larvae in order to prevent any outbreak of dengue fever. The Thai premier said he has also ordered the Ministry of Interior and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to speed up conducting surveys in all areas in the capital and other provinces and implementing measures suggested by the Ministry of Public Health to prevent any outbreak of dengue fever. Besides, people in all areas have been asked to be on alert against the deadly disease by regularly surveying and eliminating breeding grounds of dengue fever in their areas. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Epidemiology, under the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control, reported that there were 6,539 dengue fever patients in Thailand during January 1-March 20, 2017, seven of them were killed by the vectorial disease. Based on latest official surveys, breeding grounds of common house mosquitoes or Aedes, the carrier of not only dengue fever, but also Zika virus and Chikungunya, were mostly found at religious sites, or 52 per cent, followed by 35 per cent at factories, 25 per cent at schools, 16 per cent at people's houses and 10 per cent at hotels. The Thai government has urged the public to always keep their places clean and tidy to prevent all the mosquitoes-borne diseases and to avoid exposing to strong sunbeams to prevent them from a possible heat stroke during the ongoing summer in the country. (TNA)