There has been a big rise in the number of people infected with dengue fever this year, with the number of cases up four-fold over the first two months of 2012, the Public Health Ministry said on Monday
Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawanarong said there were 9,824 people treated for dengue during January and February, an average of around 1,000 patients a week. Half of the patients were students.
So far this year, 12 people had died from this disease,
The cause of the dengue outbreak is the significant increase in mosquito numbers in and around homes. All households should try to eradicate mosquito larvae in water in and around the premises every seven days, he said. The ministry's mosquito eradication programme could control only 10% of the total, said Dr Pradit.
He asked the public to assist in controlling mosquito larvae before the rainy season starts in May.
With proper eradication, the ministry believed the number of dengue patients could be reduced by as much as 50% from the usual 120,000-150,000 infections each year, of which about 15,000 were admitted to a hospital.