BANGKOK, May 30 – The Department of the Disease Control are on alert to prevent bacterial outbreak, E coli, which has struck Germany however, there has been no report of the disease in Thailand so far.
Dr Pasakorn Akrasewi, Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology, said in response to the outbreak in Germany, that the World Health Organization (WHO) advised member countries to locate patients and report the E Coli cases to the UN agency.
Thailand is on alert to screen patients from overseas at international disease control checkpoints such as at Suvarnabhumi Airport. If the situation in Europe escalates, the department will intensify the preventive measures, the director said.
The disease can lead to bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps and patients with severe complications of infection with the E coli bacterium may have kidney failure.
He advised the public to eat well-cooked foods, using serving spoons and washing hands before meals and after going to the toilet.
According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, Germany warned Sunday that the source of an outbreak of bacteria poisoning blamed for 10 deaths and hundreds of people falling ill, some in other countries, has yet to be pinpointed.
Germany’s national disease institute, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), has confirmed two deaths so far from haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease caused by a strain of bacteria known as enterohaemorrhagic E coli (EHEC).
But there are eight other suspected HUS deaths, and the RKI has said that close to 300 people have contracted the disease in recent weeks. (MCOT online news)
