Thai authorities watch out for mysterious disease from Cambodia

THAILAND, July 10 (TNA) - Thai authorities, especially those in provinces bordering Cambodia, are watching out for signs of a mysterious disease, with its symptoms similar to the hand, foot and mouth disease but severer, which has killed over 60 Cambodian children so far. The authorities have carefully screened Cambodian children entering Thailand's eastern Sa Kaeo province and advised Cambodian visitors and traders in their language to wash their hands frequently and to immediately bring their children who develop high temperatures to doctors. The Cambodian traders, who do businesses at the Rong Klua Market near a border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district were found to normally bring their children, aged 12 and lower, to stay overnight on the Thai soil in order to send them to school in the morning, prompting Sa Kaeo Governor Sanit Naksuksri to have ordered immigration police in Aranyaprathet to now check Cambodian visitors more carefully. In Chantaburi province, also in the Thai East, provincial public health chief Dr. Charat Wasuthada told his subordinates, especially those in Soi Dao and Pong Nam Ron districts, to watch out for signs of the disease and health volunteers to check people in their villages and to inculcate those in areas bordering Cambodia to protect themselves from the disease although local authorities have not yet found any patient of the mysterious disease. Special surveillance has also been conducted at the Chong Jom permanent border crossing in Karb Choeng district of Surin province in the Thai Northeast, as Major Dr. Satawat Sinprasitkul, Director of Karb Choeng Hospital, quoted the World Health Organization (WHO) as reporting that over 60 children in Cambodia have died from an enterovirus which caused the hand, foot and mouth disease at a severe extent. But Dr. Satawat confirmed that no Cambodian patients had come to his hospital to seek treatment for the disease. (TNA)