Already declared a red zone for dengue fever, the Pattaya area already has seen 31% more cases reported this year than in all of 2015, the last time the number of cases reached a critical level.
The Banglamung Health Department told an Aug. 4 meeting of the district’s village health volunteers that 46,000 cases have been reported in Chonburi Province this year, compared with 35,000 in all of 2015. More than 50,000 total cases are expected by year-end.
Banglamung and Pattaya have the second-most reported cases, the department noted. First is Koh Sichang while third place is held by Ban Bung.
The health department said it is aggressively working to destroy breeding grounds for the disease-carrying Aedes mosquito and instructed village volunteers to tour their neighbors twice weekly to put abate in water sources.
Volunteers complained people are either ignorant of the problem or don’t care, doing nothing with the abate after receiving it. The only time people take action, they said, is if a neighbor gets sick or dies.
