Nimit Tanomyat, an expert from the Insect Disease
Prevention Center, briefs a number of residents how to prevent the disease.
Jetsada Homklin
The Pattaya Public Health Department educated Pattaya residents on Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed 131 people in Saudi Arabia and adjacent
countries, but shown no ability to spread outside that region.
Nimit Tanomyat, an expert from the Insect Disease Prevention Center, briefed 165
residents how to prevent the disease, a byproduct of the Coronavirus family that
also causes the common cold and SARS in humans. Since May 5, MERS has infected
424 people in 16 countries with only scattered cases outside the Arabian
peninsula, all from people who had contracted the disease there.
The World Health Organization said in July that MERS’ spread to Southeast Asia
was unlikely. WHO’s director of communicable diseases in western Asia told a
meeting in the Philippines that the agency has not seen any evidence showing the
MERS can spread easily in groups and communities outside the Middle East.
Thai officials are not screening people for it entering the country and have not
set up any checkpoints.
Nonetheless, Pattaya health officials told locals they should be aware of the
symptoms, just in case, as the city gets a fair number of travelers from the
Mideast.
Officials advocated good hygiene and warned against drinking camel milk.
