Health Authority:HFMD is not cross-border communicable disease

BANGKOK, July 10 (TNA) - A senior Thai public health official has insisted that the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is not cross-border communicable disease, cautioning that urban areas are even more at risk of HFMD outbreaks than border areas. Speaking to reporters in Bangkok Tuesday of the HFMD natures, Dr. Pasakorn Akarasewi Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology under the Thai Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control, confirmed that there have been no fatalities in Thailand caused by the HFMD since early this year, thanks to a steady close monitoring of local public health officials with quick access to treatment provided to patients. According to Dr. Pasakorn, unlike the 2009 influenza, the HFMD cannot spread across the border, as feared by several people, as the viral infections often occur among a cluster of young children with poor health and childcare centres and schools have, therefore, been advised to separate a few students suspected of contracting the disease from others and to order a temporary shutdown if the disease spread among many children. Dr. Pasakorn expressed concerns over more possible outbreaks of the HFMD in large cities, namely Bangkok and the northern Chiang Mai province, than those in border areas, recommending people to contact public health offices in their respective areas for further information. (TNA)