Hospital officials, mom, dad and 3 bouncing baby boys
show off for the cameras at Rayong Hospital.

Theerarak Suthathiwong
A 39-year-old Rayong woman made having triplets look as easy as ABC.
Somkhuan Charoensil and 31-year-old husband Pleonpit Supantana celebrated the birth of their three boys Dec. 29 in the Rayong Hospital’s Pediatrics Ward with lots of family and friends. Babies Pasathorn or “Nong A,” Palisorn or “Nong B,” and Pasawee or “Nong C,” were born healthy, if a bit underweight, and had to spend some time in incubators until they matured a bit. And now that they’re healthy, they’ve been brought out for the whole world to see.
Hospital Director Narit Aonprom said the birth was the first time in 60 years that triplets were born at the Rayong facility. The hospital presented gifts to the new baby boys.
Somkhuan, who already has a 17-year-old son, knew she was carrying triplets about four months into her pregnancy. Remarkably, she delivered the boys naturally. Each child weighed between 1.6 kg and 1.7 kg.
The new father said he was excited at his instant family, but said taking care of them will be a challenge, as he was laid off from his job as a laborer in the Maptaput Industrial Estate last year as a result of the landmark environmental court case there.

Pattaya officials to tackle problems facing area youth

Vimolrat Singnikorn
Faced with an alarming number of teen pregnancies, HIV infections and drug use, Pattaya officials have set up several committees to tackle the problems facing area youth.

Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn (left) receives a souvenir from Namthip Srisakul, Regional Fundraising Officer, World Vision.

At a Jan. 28-29 seminar at the Diana Garden Resort, Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn called on child-welfare offices to tackle the plight of street kids and do more to educate teens and families about the perils of premarital sex and drug use. Social workers heard lectures and made visits to shelters and children’s rights offices.
He announced the city has also set up three committees chaired by top Pattaya officials. One will be a city-only committee on the protection of children. The second is a joint panel between the city, state agencies and NGOs and the third is a committee that brings together city and police officials on enforcement issues.
“The purpose behind all of this is to learn about the issues and develop better methods of protecting children,” Wutisak said. “The aim also is to get networks to cooperate and increase understanding of child-protection issues.”
The urgency of the city’s efforts stem from a study that turned up some alarming statistics on underage promiscuity, drug use and HIV infections.
For example, Banglamung Hospital - which handled about 21 percent of all births in the greater Pattaya area - reported that 1.9 percent of pregnant women it saw between the ages of 15 and 20 were HIV positive. That is 2.5 times the national average.
The study also warned that children under age 18 were also very vulnerable to physical assault and sexual abuse, usually by those who force them into the sex industry or are customers.
Drugs also play a role in the problems of Pattaya teens, with an inordinately large number either addicted to narcotics or dealing them.
The report also urged action on the issue of unemployed teens and street kids. The city plays host to about 3,000 street kids, who are often the offspring of poor families that have relocated from elsewhere and have neglected them. But even educated children have problems. The study said that a large number of teens with basic educations are unemployed, which leaves them time to get into trouble with sex and drugs.
Results of the study were discussed during the two-day seminar, which also saw Natthawut Buaprathum of the Protection of Children’s Rights Center, speak to the social-welfare officials assembled. They also visited emergency housing shelters for children, the Kanitnaree Center, the Association for Promotion of the Status of Women, and the Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights Foundation in Bangkok.

Mahout seeks compensation for electrocution of 800,000 baht elephant

Aouy Yuiram and other mahouts file a complaint with provincial authorities over the electrocution death of Aouy’s elephant.

Patcharapol Panrak
A 61-year-old mahout who faces financial ruin after his elephant was electrocuted outside a Najomtien camp wants the Provincial Electric Authority to compensate him because, he claims, its power poles are negligently maintained and shoot electricity in the ground when it rains.
Sangchan, a 50-year-old elephant, was killed Jan. 23 from apparent electrocution near Hern Najomtien Elephant Camp. Mahout Aouy Yuiram was riding Sangchan after a veterinary checkup in a light rain when, passing power-line pylons meant to protect them from lightning strikes, the elephant went rigid and collapsed. Aouy said he felt his legs go numb before being thrown during the animal’s convulsions.
PEA workers were called to the scene to find the pachyderm dead with its head lying against a high-voltage power pole. They turned off the current to remove the carcass and test the area for wayward current, but said that the poles, wires and lightning-grounding pylons were all connected properly.
Aouy disagrees. He said two other elephants and their mahout were shocked during rainy conditions in the area. Wong-ngeon and its baby, Nam-oy, survived, but their caretaker suffered a broken arm when he was thrown during their stampede away from danger.
Sangchan’s death has had tragic implications for Aouy as well. The mahout bought the pachyderm with an 800,000 baht loan at 3 percent interest rate and has 700,000 left to pay. With no animal to take tourists on elephant treks with, he faces financial disaster and is now desperately seeking compensation.
Aouy first filed a complaint with police, claiming the accident was a result of negligence by the Provincial Electric Authority. He also sought relief from the elephant camp, which turned down his claim, citing the animal died as a result of an accident out of their control.
Police Lt. A-non Infong said PEA authorities had already checked the power systems near the camp and found no problems. Aouy maintains, however, that the checks were done during dry conditions and need to be done again in the rain to see if current is streaming from the grounding pylons into the earth or subterranean water. He sees no other explanation for his expensive animal’s death.
For now, the PEA hasn’t said whether it plans to retest the area but if a solution cannot be found, Aouy said his only other option would be to sue the utility in court, which he did on January 25. He’s also asked for a registered veterinarian to perform an autopsy on the elephant to use as evidence.

Small garbage fire ignites bigger problem in Plutaluang

Patcharapol Panrak
A 64-year-old American man who decided to burn garbage during strong winds ended up torching about 160 sq. meters and threatening 10 nearby houses.

What started as a small garbage fire quickly spread during strong winds, threatening nearby houses.

It took firefighters nearly 30 minutes to extinguish the blaze in Samakkee Village 5 in Plutaluang Jan. 22. Residents fled the scene, fearing the quick-moving fire would engulf their homes.
The fire started while Richard Shainwald was burning trash in a small empty field where residents disposed of their refuse. Strong winds quickly spread the fire, however, with a utility pole suffering the most damage, plunging some homes into darkness.
Shainwald apologized to his neighbors and promised not to burn trash again for a while.

Police search for 2nd man wanted in attempted robbery of Canadian

Boonlua Chatree
Police are looking for the partner of an HIV-infected thief who received a bloody beat-down from Pattaya Police Volunteers after attempting to rob a Canadian man outside his Jomtien Beach condominium.
Saranya Yatcharoen, 27, was taken into custody Jan. 24 with a bleeding nose and mouth, swollen face and other injures after attempting to rob Bhatti Ammad Wazir, 35, outside the View Talay 2 building on Pratamnak Road that morning. Claiming he needed money for HIV treatment, as well as ya ba, Saranya and a partner identified only as “Game” allegedly held up the Canadian with a fake pistol.
Wazir told police the two men stopped him as we was going to his car and, although he recognized the gun was fake and attempted to defend himself, one man hit him with a stick in the head. Both the accused robbers fled, with Wazir in pursuit. Volunteer police in the area joined the chase and managed to stop and subdue Saranya while Game escaped.

Underpaid transvestite steals video camera to boost earnings

Boonlua Chatree
A transvestite claiming he was underpaid for his services allegedly stole a video camera from a customer hoping to cash it in for additional compensation.

Jakkapan Makkawan has been arrested
for theft.

Jakkapan Makkawan, 22, was arrested in his Marina Inn Apartments room Jan. 22. Officers recovered the JVC camera reported stolen by Sergey Chibisov at the Tim Boutique Hotel where the Russian had taken the woman-of-the-second-category earlier that night.
Jakkapan said he and friend Chanidapa Torsorn, 21, had come to the hotel to provide service to their client but were only paid 400 baht. While the victim was in the shower, he admitted to fleeting with the camera. Police are still looking for Chanidapa.

British man arrested on embezzlement charges

Boonlua Chatree
Immigration police have arrested a 31-year-old British man on charges he embezzled 14 million baht from a Huay Yai real estate company he is a partner in.

Craig David Banks has been arrested on charges of embezzlement.

Jomtien Beach resident Craig David Banks was taken into custody by Chonburi Immigration officers Jan. 27. The arrest came after a warrant was issued based on the complaint by his partner that he’d stolen money from their company.
Police are withholding the name of the company.

German’s deadly high-rise fall likely an accident, police say

Boonlua Chatree
Police say a 71-year-old German Gunter Kirt Zwirner died after falling off his eighth-storey balcony likely fell accidentally, perhaps due to dizziness.
Police responding to the Jan. 27 incident at the Kimhant Apartment & Mansion in Naklua’s Roi Lang Village said they found no signs of struggle or violence and that the elderly German lived alone.
Investigators assumed Zwirner was watching the sunrise on his balcony, where they found a plastic chair and a photo of the man with his lover, and likely fell over the 1 meter railing when he stood up. He was found lying face up wearing only red underwear.
Zwirner had rented the apartment beginning Nov. 19 and was due to stay until March 18. His body was sent to the Forensics Institute and the German embassy was informed of the death.

Return of the Sukhumvit sinkhole

Boonlua Chatree
The hole that swallowed Sukhumvit Road is back, and this time it’s eating trees.
Nearly two months after a giant sink hole opened at the Rong Maikeed Intersection, part of the busy roadway collapsed again January 25. This time, however, the surface collapsed under the center island and only soil and plant bits fell in, not motorbikes.

Sukhumvit sinkhole has returned, this time swallowing a tree and bushes.

The collapse runs along an underground water pipe, the same one that broke before and washed away the land supporting the pavement. City engineers rushed into the correct the problem, causing minor traffic problems in the process.
Amnouy Na-ek, director of construction operations for the city Civil Engineering Department, blamed heavy rain for washing away the soil and causing the collapse. The soil was weak from the recent laying of the Provincial Water Authority drainage pipe. But he said the city will step in to reinforce the soil to prevent further problems.

PBTA presses city for additional funding

Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Stressing the close relationship it’s had with the city government, the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association is pushing for additional funding to help promote tourist-related development.
At its January meeting, the PBTA hosted Pattaya City Council Chairman Tavich Chaiswangwong who outlined the many projects the city has funded over the past year to enhance the city’s image and infrastructure.

Pattaya City Council Chairman Tavich Chaisawangwong (left) and Jamroon Vitsavachaipan (right), president of the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association.

Among these are projects to move power and telephone lines underground along the beachfront, complete the long-delayed road-widening project in Jomtien Beach and build a wind-power generating station on Koh Larn. And still in development, he said, is the new Pattaya Hospital and Pattaya City Secondary Demonstration School.
Tavich also cited the 1337 Call Center, improved traffic control center, closed-circuit television camera monitoring, wastewater treatment plants and sea rescue division as all positives for tourism.
PBTA President Jamroon Vitsavachaipan noted that Pattaya had allocated funding to his association in 2009, which was used to support its activities and participation in the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s “road show” project. While he said he understood that the city’s national budget allocation was cut this year, he told the city council chairman he hoped that the city would see fit to find some money to give to the association again.

400 Sattahip youth given anti-drug lecture

Pimonporn Kadeetham of the Chonburi Public Health and Environment Office warns youngsters that drug use could lead to AIDS.

Patcharapol Panrak
About 400 secondary and pre-college students at Sattahip’s Singsamut School were given a lesson in the dangers of drugs during the opening of the city’s latest drug-prevention campaign.
Pimonporn Kadeetham of the Chonburi Public Health and Environment Office warned the youngsters that drug use now could lead them to become drug dealers later or even contract AIDS.
Sattahip Mayor Paroj Malakul Na Ayutthaya said the drug problem cannot only be solved through law enforcement and that students need to be educated at any early age about the perils of narcotics. He also advised parents and teachers to be aware of the signs of drug use, including theft of valuables from the home or school to pay for a drug habit.
Drug use can also lead to HIV infection and AIDS, as the loss of control can lead youngsters to having unprotected sex or using drugs intravenously.

7,130 kids received polio vaccination last month

Vimolrat Singnikorn and Phasakorn Channgam
Pattaya’s Anti-Polio Campaign got off to a bigger-than-expected start with 7,130 Thai and foreign children under age 5 getting their first vaccinations.
Many of those kids and their parents turned out again at the Public Health Service Center Jan. 27 to receive their second of three required rounds of anti-polio drops. As with the first round, which was offered from Dec. 23 to Jan. 27, the second and third set of vaccinations are provided free of charge.

This cute little youngster receives a dose of polio vaccination drops.

Public Health Department chief of infectious disease prevention Na Anya Chantrakat said the strong turnout, which included 600 non-Thai children, was likely due to the vigorous promotion of the anti-polio campaign by the city. Pattaya City Council President Tavich Chaiswangwong presided over the Dec. 23 opening, which also featured a children’s heath contest.
The campaign is part of the nationwide “Health Policy for No Polio” that calls for at least 90 percent of Thai infants to receive three polio vaccinations in their first years of life, aggressive monitoring of Acute Flaccid Paralysis cases, investigation and control of active disease cases and promotion of anti-polio measures in the general public.
Pattaya, as one of the country’s busiest crossroads of international visitors, is a weak point in the country’s defenses, as it hosts many visitors from the developing world where polio remains a problem, officials believe.
Thailand’s anti-polio efforts are being carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Rotary Foundation, which launched a global polio-eradication effort in 1988. Since then diagnosed cases of polio have decreased by 99 percent from more than 350,000 cases a year to just 1,310 cases worldwide in 2007.
The Americas, Europe, China, Australia and 35 other western Pacific countries have already been declared polio-free. But it still can be found in Asia and North Africa. The disease also remains endemic in India, which accounted for the largest segment of Pattaya’s tourists this year, as well as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
For more information please contact the Contagious Disease Protection and Control Center at 038-420-562 ext. 104 or 105.