Thailand: Floods bring their share of health threats

Written by Sandeep Nehra

Floods in Thailand, which last in some areas for weeks and threatened to continue, posing serious health problems, from electrocution, drowning and risk of epidemics. Besides the possible meeting with unsavory animal.

International agencies point out that conditions are ripe for a humanitarian disaster and call to respect the elementary rules of hygiene.

“We’re talking about the health system: clean drinking water, hand washing, ensure that where you wash your hands are separated from those where they defecate,” said Matthew Cochrane of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“Do not create a mass panic,” he estimated so far.

Agencies distribute materials, clean water and toilets sometimes removable to tens of thousands of people, at home or in shelters. But everyone is reaching a “challenge,” acknowledged Maureen Birmingham, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Bangkok.

The manager believes that diseases could spread quickly, especially conjunctivitis, fungal infections and leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that spreads through contaminated water.

The Ministry of Health, who said he treated a half-million patients through mobile medical teams, has reported an increased number of skin diseases.

And as in all wetlands, mosquito-borne diseases – including malaria and dengue fever – are threatening.

Thailand can still rely on a relatively high awareness of health issues. Bangkok itself is a pretty clean city, with leading hospitals throughout Asia. But the submerged regions leave little choice to the victims.

“The water rose to the toilet in the house,” said Kusuma Glomjai, 34, of the province of Pathum Thani, at the north end of Bangkok. “I can not use them so I go near the other side of the road.”

Others use a plastic bag to relieve themselves. And many complain more generally have to spend their days in muddy waters and totally opaque.

“I have no choice but when I get home, I wash,” noted Surapol Pinpol, 57, with water up to the abdomen.

In a country where most people can not swim, drowning is perhaps the biggest threat, noted for its part, Maureen Birmingham.

“It’s very disturbing. One of risky behavior is the most common fishing, so we ask people to be very careful.”

The threat remains, more random, but hardly reassuring, animals.

The authorities have called on residents near the rivers to be wary of snakes, which abound in Bangkok and some are dangerous. And a reward of 1,000 baht (25 euros) was offered for crocodile captured, after a hundred predators have escaped from farms.

“We caught three crocodiles now” on the basis of information of local residents, an official said Wednesday the department of fisheries in the province of Nonthaburi.

The photos capture reptiles, sometimes six feet long, made the headlines. But no attack on a human has so far been identified.