Electrocution warning in flooded areas
Disease Control Department chief Pornthep Siriwanarangsan yesterday urged people wading through flood water to beware of the risk of electrocution, as the 2011 flood saw 128 deaths by electrocution in 20 flood-hit provinces.
Pornthep said 103 men and 25 women were electrocuted in flood water. Bangkok claimed the top spot with 26 such cases, followed by Pathum Thani’s 22 cases, Nonthaburi’s 20 and Ayutthaya’s 14.
He went on to say that the department’s 58 disease-investigation teams had provided 436 rounds of service at 387 locations during last year’s flood and had found 1,301 leptospirosis cases, 10,515 dengue fever cases, and 197,680 diarrhoea cases totally. They had also sent 180 pest-control teams to eliminate disease-carrier pests and mosquitoes at 533 locations during last year’s flood.
Pornthep’s comment was made at the Public Health Ministry office in Nonthaburi’s Bang Kruay district as part of an event, attended by 2,000 health volunteers and members of the public, to promote public understanding about the health situation during last year’s flooding to improve the situation this year.
Another speaker, Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri, affirmed the ministry’s water-borne disease watch system was ready to tackle flood victims’ heath problems this year.
Saying that last year’s flood had affected 11 million people in 65 provinces and created a prolonged impact for six months, Witthaya said people’s lifestyle had become unhealthy. People stayed in areas with prolonged flooding, were short of clean drinking water and food, had less-than-hygienic sanitary systems and garbage disposal; and lived near disease-carrying pests. Such conditions led to 2 million people falling ill.
Having learned their lessons, he said the ministry’s officials and health volunteers were now better-prepared in terms of disease prevention should floods occur this year, adding that 1,088 disease-investigation teams were ready to visit flood-hit areas.
