Seven residents of a central Pattaya neighborhood were diagnosed with dengue fever, sparking worries of an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.
Sompol Jithiruangkiet of the Banglamung Health Department, and Kanrapa Mukdasanim, director of Pattaya Disease Control Department, took a team of community health volunteers to Soi Taengmo in the Chumsai Community March 15 after the dengue cases were reported.
Health workers attended to the victims while the Surveillance and Rapid Response Team spread out across the neighborhood to tell residents to scour their properties for any standing water that could be used as a breeding ground for mosquitos.
A survey of 208 houses found 29 with mosquito larva in 48 containers. Those and 21 other homes and businesses were sprayed with pesticide.
Kanrapa said an outbreak of seven cases at once was considered a critical situation and so emergency measures were needed to contain the spread of the disease and wipe out the vectors responsible.
SRRT members checked every household to make sure that more residents are not ill. They also tried to find where the bugs responsible were nesting.
Health workers deployed in the community, spraying pesticide and distributing abate to add to any water sources to kill mozzie larvae.
Residents in Pattaya are encouraged to contact the Disease Prevention and Control Section at 038-253-100 ext. 4081 or Pattaya’s Contact Center 1337 for assistance and/or is spraying is needed.
