OPINION

War on dengue

Re: "Defeating dengue", (BP, Nov 15).

It's crazy that we are questioning whether to implement the new dengue vaccine or not. This disease is greatly impacting Thailand as a nation and, if left unattended, may cripple it economically. If dengue continues to be as bad as it is now, tourism numbers will likely decrease, and businesses will suffer when workers are affected by the sickness.

Instead of debating the issue of cost, we need to go beyond that and see what is beneficial for Thailand as a whole. By investing in vaccination now, Thailand will end up saving money in the long run. By procrastinating on approval of this vaccine, the damage dengue is causing is only getting worse.

It is understandable that determining the best method of administration is a challenging process, but ultimately it needs to be available to all Thai people for free. After all, the ones who are most susceptible are those in more rural areas that cannot afford it.

By listening to the World Health Organisation and learning from the examples of other countries like Brazil, we can virtually eliminate dengue from our country. By doing so, it would encourage it to thrive and develop as a whole.

Re: "The flipside to 'Nott'", (Editorial, Nov 12).

I agree with your editorial that the kraab rot ku controversy, in which TV talk show host Akanat "Nott" Ariyaritwikul punched a motorcyclist and demanded him to pay respect to his car, should be left in the past by society.

Such aggressive behaviour has become common in our society because some people are so obsessed with materialistic values that they hold unfair prejudices and are intolerant against others. Since this is part of our social ills, and Akanat has been fired by his employers, and Akanat himself has offered his public apology, this incident should be put to rest.

As a society, we should learn something from this embarrassing occurrence, and then quickly move on with our normal lives.

I applaud Muse for running two articles on Nov 12 that were highly sympathetic to vegan diets. I particularly appreciated the article which noted that although there were infants on vegan diets who died, their deaths had nothing to do with the fact they were vegans.

Years ago one of my critics gloated that two parents in England were prosecuted when their vegan baby died. But my critic didn't mention that even the doctor who testified for the prosecution said the baby died of starvation and not because he was a vegan.

There is always a double standard. When the number one cause of death among American meat-eaters is heart disease, few people blame their death on eating meat. But if I so much as get an ingrown toenail people will find a way to somehow blame it on my vegan diet!

Re: "Freezing kills liver flukes in popular Thai fermented fish", (BP, Nov 15).

The human liver fluke clonorchis sinensis has a complex life cycle, much of which involves life in fresh water environments. At one point in this cycle the free-swimming cercaria bore into a fish to take up residence in muscle tissue. Once inside of the fish muscle, the cercaria create a protective metacercarial cyst with which to encapsulate their bodies.

This protective cyst proves useful when the fish muscle is consumed by a human as it enables the cercaria to pass through harsh stomach acid and eventually find its way intact into the human liver.

Most significantly, many species of parasites in metacercarial cyst form have been found able to survive freezing for periods longer than 24 hours.

Therefore, I suggest the recent findings at Naresuan University which suggest that freezing fish for 24 hours prior to the manufacture of fermented fish paste is sufficient to prevent human infection by the liver fluke be reexamined to ensure that the recommendations made are correct.