Elephantiasis still a problem in restive area.

Ongoing unrest in the far South has marred efforts to eradicate elephantiasis in Narathiwat, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla has said. The province, with the country's largest peat swamp forest, where mansonia mosquitoes, the major vectors of the disease, breed, recorded a high number of elephantiasis patients, totalling 118, last year. Of this, 110 sufferers have elephantiasis parasites circulating in their blood and are in an infectious stage.

The ministry provides treatment to people in risk areas each year to prevent the disease from spreading, Dr Mongkol said earlier this week.

However, only 35,000 out of the 78,000 at risk in Narathiwat had access to medication last year.

In addition, he said, malnutrition and other parasites are also rampant among children in the province.

About 3% of children under the age of six, or 1,772, suffer from malnutrition.

Bangkok Post
Sunday February 11, 2007