Joining Mayor Aroon Solos in yesterday’s (June 11) campaign were officers from the Rawai Health Promoting Hospital, village headman, and health volunteers.
In addition to the surveying and fogging, attendees agreed to organise a cleaning activity and campaign for destroying mosquito breeding areas, which will include local residents and students, to prevent residents contracting dengue fever especially the sea gypsy community which is seen to be a high-risk area.
Mayor Aroon said, “It is important to organise a cleaning campaign in the sea gypsy community as it is very crowded. There are a lot of households within the community which cause a large amount of waste. This causes the area to becoming a mosquito breeding area and these mosquitoes can carry three types of disease; dengue fever, chikungunya, and the Zika virus.
It was announced last week in a report from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) that Phuket still has the highest per capital infection rate of dengue fever in the country. (See story here.)
From January 1- June 5 this year, 357 people in Phuket had been confirmed by local hospitals as contracting dengue, the same figure revealed in a report posted on the Department of Disease Control DDC website also last week. (See report here.).
In view of this, the deputy Phuket provincial public health doctor has warn residents to be aware of the situation, which he said was “worrying”.
Those who suffer a fever, headache, muscle ache, and feel sick and weak more than two days should seek a doctor’s advice immediately, he said.
He also advised those who believe they have contracted dengue fever not buy medicines themselves because some medicines may cause bleeding in internal organs that might lead to death.
Mayor Aroon added, “Rawai municipality has found that there have been an increasing number of residents contracting dengue between April and May this year.
“To prevent residents contracting dengue it is necessary to warn people to start cleaning around their houses, communities, schools, places of worship, and public areas so they do not become breeding grounds,” he said.
“We will commence weekly operations and monthly activities which will make residents become more aware of the current dengue situation.
“We will teach residents that water containers must be covered, beach and community waste must be cleared regularly and fogging must be carried out.
“These activities will be consistent with the “Keep Phuket Clean with our Hands and Hearts” project,” he added.