Thailand is winning the battle in its fight against malaria and is likely to be free of the disease by 2021, three years ahead of the national goal, the Department of Disease Control says.
"We have done remarkably well in terms of disease control," department head Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai told a seminar yesterday.
"Now we are in the mode of eradication, which is quite a challenging process for us. We will face problems in tackling the disease in risk areas such as in forests and along borders.
"But I am certain we will be up to the challenge because we have better and closer cooperation among various agencies."
Thailand has had a long battle with malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, prevalent in tropical countries, especially in Asia and Africa.
Malaria still exists in border areas with Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and forest areas in southern provinces.
Tak, Ubon Ratchathani, Yala, Kanchanaburi, Mae Hong Son and Si Sa Ket are areas with the highest number of malaria cases, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
Any country with a rate of malaria infection of one for every 1,000 in the population is doing well with good chances it could eventually be eradicated, the World Health Organisation says.
The Ministry of Public Health in late October declared war against insect-borne diseases including dengue and malaria.
According to the plan, it will eradicate malaria by the year 2021 and the number of patients with dengue fever must be reduced by not less than 25%. The ministry said the outcome was better than expected.
"Due to technology, we can have better information to detect the disease before it spreads, and provide treatment in time," said Prayuth Sudathip, manager of the department's malaria programme.
"We even have a small laboratory lab in the village for blood testing. By these means, this year, we have been able to cut the number of patients affected to only 0.21:1,000 people." The ministry said there are 13,971 cases of malaria, down 20% compared with last year.
Under the project, the ministry uses technology to help monitor the disease such as mobile blood testing or special prevention campaigns.