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[DMasut]

Miserere, on 2009-02-09 08:36:43, said:

I believe a War On Mosquitos should be announced to prevent Thailand becoming a Mosquito Hub, any mosquitos or people caught associating with mosquitos should be shot.

They should be given a choice first:

"To either be in support of the War on Mosquitos or against"  like GW Bush did on the War on Terror.
OUCH!!  What was that!?  Pesky MOSQUITOS!!!

But what a wonderful thought.... Thailand WITHOUT MOSQUITOS!!!  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better.

[prakhonchai nick]

If you think you may have dengue fever, be careful where you go to check.

After having told the "doctor" at the local hospital that I suspected dengue fever, he assured me there was no trace of dengue, but that I had a sexually transmitted disease

4 hours later I was in a private hospital with hemoraghic dengue fever!

[Paul123456]

Just back from Bangkok where we were attacked by many many mosquitoes.  They particularly liked biting my 10 month old baby, who would struggle to fight off dengue fever.

The problem is that there is stagnant water and junk containing stagnant water everywhere - lots and lots of mosquito breeding sites provided by lazy humans.  Plus all the natural stagnant water in swamps etc

Thai people refuse to clean this up.  Even when I mention this to educated intelligent Thai friends, they seem to think "no"  "there are mosquitoes and nothing can be done to fix it".  They won't do anything about this.  ???????  Ha ha - they also won't close doors after them, and so the mosquitoes go in their houses.  The solutions are very easy but there seems to be some mental block stopping Thai people seeing it.

???????????????????

[zyphir]

alanmorison, on 2009-02-09 07:04:59, said:

Miserere, on 2009-02-09 07:36:43, said:

I believe a War On Mosquitos should be announced to prevent Thailand becoming a Mosquito Hub, any mosquitos or people caught associating with mosquitos should be shot.

Hmmm . . . I seem to remember a very sane and sensible world conference on dengue held on Phuket last year. Lots of experts came from everywhere. They didn't suggest we should be alarmed, just act sensibily. Could The Nation and its cohorts be overdosing on something? Perhaps the army has intervened yet again? Put the mosquitoes on boats, shove them offshore . . . no problem.

Does regular mosquito repellant spray work at preventing getting bit?  Like Deet?

[auserb]

orang37, on 2009-02-10 01:55:13, said:

I've had dengue here in Chiang Mai about ten years ago; the onset of the disease (four to six days after the infecting bite) for me, as is the case for many other people, was incredibly dramatic : I went from feeling fine to feeling deathly ill in the space of thirty minutes.

In late 2008 Chiang Mai media were reporting the dengue fever rate in northern Thailand as ten times "normal" :

Rates of Dengue in northern Thailand and Chiang Mai


Once you have it, the incubation period for its full spread throughout your body is about seven days : the good news is that if your red blood cell count stays high enough through the seventh day you will survive; the bad news is that if your red-blood cell count gets low enough you are in mortal danger of "dengue hemorraghic fever": of things like your blood being so thin it can perfuse into your luings, your eyes, etc., and you will certainly require hospitalization and transfusions if that is the case.

Dengue is carried by the older females of species Aedes Egyptus, a fact some Australian researchers are now trying to exploit via developing a virus that attacks same :

Australian Dengue Research develops virus to attack carriers

There are several strains of Dengue, and getting one and surviving that one does NOT give you cross-immunity to the other strains.

A friend living here in Chiang Mai contracted dengue on a trip to Buriram last year; following his return here he was interviewed by a local governmental organization dedicated to dengue control, and he tells me that actions were taken in the area of Buriram he visiited to spray for dengue control.

I grew up in the northern part of the state of Florida in the US, by the way, and remember as a boy (in the 1950's) chasing with other kids after what we called the "smogger," which came around spraying clouds of whatever about twice a week in the summer (wet season) : undoubtedly breathing in large quantities of whatever they were spraying helped make me the mutant I am today

At that time Florida did not have Dengue : I read that last year 18 people in Florida had it. But there is no doubt that Dengue is the fastest spreading arbovirus (mosquito-carried) virus in the world.

~o:37;

Yeah, while holidaying in Ciang Mai I coped Dengue . I was sick as a dog
One minute I would be sick in fever and the next I was in water (sweathing)

My blood count was very low... red cell , but I survive. I was taken to BKK-Patayya hospital for 2 days...as you can see I am ok now, but I wils sh... my self as I am going to Ubon Ratchathany at the end of mont.

Does anyone know , what is the situation in West Thailand? please or it is same all over?

[Savayla]

My husband had it in 1992 and it is not fun.  There is a prophalactic available though.  It is from the Blue Turtle Group.  Just google it.  We bought their product for Malaria as we were going into an malarial area in South Africa for a few weeks.  My youngest daughter contracted it and the same remedy is used to kill the virus too.  It worked well and I have full faith in the product.  As we are heading for Krabi soon, I will definately be buying some .  that and a good , natural spray.  

doesn't make sense to give yourself cancer while trying to avoid getting dengue fever !!! All these smog sprays scare the hel_l out of me.

[Bearhawk07]

alanmorison, on 2009-02-09 22:04:59, said:

Miserere, on 2009-02-09 07:36:43, said:

I believe a War On Mosquitos should be announced to prevent Thailand becoming a Mosquito Hub, any mosquitos or people caught associating with mosquitos should be shot.

Hmmm . . . I seem to remember a very sane and sensible world conference on dengue held on Phuket last year. Lots of experts came from everywhere. They didn't suggest we should be alarmed, just act sensibily. Could The Nation and its cohorts be overdosing on something? Perhaps the army has intervened yet again? Put the mosquitoes on boats, shove them offshore . . . no problem.

Jai yin yin. I am not scared because the Thai experts are brainstorming a solution. Also, they have a mosquito war room.  Think about it, what chance does a mindless disease have against these kinds of resources?

[ianh68]

Seneque, on 2009-02-09 15:28:54, said:

Do like Singapore does ... It is forbidden by law to breed mosquitoes !  

Not only that, they actually enforce the law. A neighbour of mine has a huge stagnant pond outside of which the authorities periodically place huge posters warning of mosquitoes. But the pond is never drained!

[spirit47]

What a show! The poisons they spray against the mosquitos make me more anger than the "dengue-fever", it's for showing that they do everything...Two people die, sorry about this, but now 10.000 give one day or more, having poison in the air, the water the ground. That's a war that human never win, frogs and birds are better armed for this.

[bori]

Get some mosquito killer packets from your local council offfice. My local council gave this stuff out last year free. Its a powder you put in any open water containers that can potentialy breed mosquitos. Stinks ,but effective and non toxic.

As a kid gowing up in North Queensland Australia, along side the ross river it was a very real and dangerous disease. Everyone knew somebody with either Ross river fever or dangue. We used to get educated by John williemson on T.V about dangue prevention.
Best thing you can do is stop the mossies breeding around your house, our local council used to hire crop dusters to spray the swamps, cant really see that happening around here for awhile though as thailand is a big swamp mostly.
Look out for the mossies with white legs!

"Stop dangue now ay"

[Id68]

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!...phoaw!




Don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating the gravity of the disease itself, but if the total this year is “1,675 so far” compared to “Last year saw a total of 91,003 patients, with 65,581 cases in 2007”...well, this thread strikes me as slightly sensationalist?

  

  Perhaps the inclusion of an overview of the disease itself would be more appropriate at the start of the thread with a complete listing of the statistics including: ratios/numbers of people suffering from the less voracious form of dengue who survived/or not as opposed to the same ratio/numbers caused by the second form (hemorrhaging)of dengue, the worst areas hit and at what time of the year and perhaps the inclusion of an overview of the disease itself…

  

  (Cue smartarse with link to such a thread on the forum…S.A. you’ve missed the point!)

  

  …With as an afterthought a comparison to the number of say, road accidents in the same period.

  

  People scare easily, but is this particular subject worthy of our emotions when compared to other areas…like reckless driving and its relation to obtaining a driving permit within half an hour as is the case in Thailand or unprotected sex and the increase of Aids by god knows how much  in the last few yeras?

[heazille]

chiang mai, on 2009-02-09 21:38:51, said:

Make a joke about it and be dismissive of it but don't catch it, it's easily lethal and in the event it is not, it will make you very very sick - much more scary than Malaria, trust me.

Had Dengue myself last year, it is a truly nasty disease, I lost 2 stone in weight in 3 weeks and it took me about 8 weeks to get over it!

It is certainley NOT something to laugh or joke about.



Ta Ta
Richard
Chiang Mai

[Lix]

MHM, on 2009-02-09 21:50:21, said:

My husband & I caught it in Septemeber. The only treatment is water & paracetemol.. We were sick, very sick, for weeks. Be careful, this is no joke.
It happens to everyone

Not everyone, less than 1% of the population

sorry i know this is serious, couldn't resist a Ricky Gervais style comment

[Navalator]

I thought that Miserere's comment was funny!

[growe237]

How long before flu-like symptoms start to show up after a mozzy carrying dengue bites you?

Re insecticides, I received a very serious, painful burn from a poison being sprayed on the hedges at the Jolly Frog GH when I was in Kanchanaburi a few years ago. I was about ten yards away and it drifted and landed on my skin. Be careful!

[voracious]

In response to the person who asked:

Yes DEET works for repelling the mosquitoes and reducing the likelihood of being bit (and thereby infected).

Long sleeves and legs for those who can wear them in the heat also help.

I've got a couple of these kind of shirts that have built in repellent and they seem to help, but probably DEET based repellent is just as or more effective.

[voracious]

I was also going to suggest mosquitofish, as China has recently begun a program to add them to stagnant bodies of water to prevent similar epidemics there.

However, board member Phaethon appears to have beat me to the punch back in November when he said:

Quote

Advise getting some 'mosquito fish' (several species come under this name according to region) - ask in a well-stocked aquarists. These are usually small species that specialize in feeding on surface larvae and help keep the mossie population down. These species can often be recognized by their upturned mouths. Unfortunately they also take out some species of larvae that also feed on mossies, so get local advice.

There are reports, however, that they will eat ALL insect fry and small animal fry in the water, so don't put them where you don't want them stressing the local frog and amphibian population.
(reference: LINK)

[on-on]

growe237, on 2009-02-10 01:58:24, said:

How long before flu-like symptoms start to show up after a mozzy carrying dengue bites you?

It's something like 5 days to 2 weeks, I believe.  I had it last year and it was not fun.  I recall the onset was a fever and a little swelling in the neck, but without any of the usual congestion or GI issues that you'd expect if you had some kind of cold or bowel problem.  That being said, while it is a serious disease and should be treated by medical staff on a case by case basis of course, in many cases it's perfectly possible to simply suffer quietly at home while drinking a lot of water.  People who aren't too young or too old and who are in generally good health most often won't need to stay in the hospital or anything unless they have a particularly bad case or unless it develops into hemorrhagic dengue.   From what I can tell, in the hospital what they basically do is hydrate you via IV and monitor your condition for complications, low/falling platelet count, etc.  Since there's nothing they can do to treat the average case other than give you paracetamol, sitting at home drinking water was preferable for me to the expense and curtailed freedom of the hospital, though of course each patient has their own particular reaction to disease.  

The important things I recall are:

1) Get diagnosed early, because after a few days there traces of whatever they look for to identify it as Dengue disappear and they can only guess what it is by platelet count
2) Talk with a doctor early so you can make sure you don't take anything else that could affect the disease (aspirin, ibuprofen, other stuff).  

I was stupidly taking ibuprofen at first and the doctor got me off of it because it further lowers your platelet count.  After that I got a little better.  Overall it took about two weeks of daily high fevers and various bone/joint pain before those symptoms stopped and another couple of weeks before I was back to full speed - it really does make you weak, I can't stress that enough.  Even after you're over the fevers and such, the lingering weakness is a real problem.  I'm used to running quite a bit on a weekly basis and I had to essentially stop for the better part of a month.  Took another month after that to get my legs back in shape.

[dasy]

noahvail, on 2009-02-09 02:11:39, said:

stumonster, on 2009-02-09 10:04:18, said:

so how do they educate the public on mosquito control ?

television advertisements ?
radio advertisements ?
pamphlets ?

or a truck driving around spraying atomised diesel ?

I have only ever encountered one of the above.

In many of the cities in Florida, where the mosquito is the State Bird, "malathion" is dispensed as a fog every night.  For many years, the mozzies are no longer pests in the cities.  Don't know the effect on flora and fauna, but I wonder if it'd be worth a shot here.

Malathion itself is of low toxicity; however, absorption or ingestion into the human body readily results in its metabolism to malaoxon, which is substantially more toxic.[8] Chronic exposure to low levels of malathion have been hypothesized to impair memory, but this is disputed.

hmm I am not so sure we need more impaired memory spans here. But we can give it a shot......

[dumball]

Paul123456, on 2009-02-10 05:14:48, said:

Just back from Bangkok where we were attacked by many many mosquitoes. They particularly liked biting my 10 month old baby, who would struggle to fight off dengue fever.

The problem is that there is stagnant water and junk containing stagnant water everywhere - lots and lots of mosquito breeding sites provided by lazy humans. Plus all the natural stagnant water in swamps etc

Thai people refuse to clean this up. Even when I mention this to educated intelligent Thai friends, they seem to think "no" "there are mosquitoes and nothing can be done to fix it". They won't do anything about this. ??????? Ha ha - they also won't close doors after them, and so the mosquitoes go in their houses. The solutions are very easy but there seems to be some mental block stopping Thai people seeing it.

???????????????????

The answer to your query is simple , it is called 'Thainess' , whole thread on that going nowhere in particular , others suggest 'Mai-pen-rai ' , government have university 'Think tanks' , now there is a 'War-room' on Dengue mosquitoes , but as in most of these 'Theory forming ' equations , the main factor becomes most noticeable by its total absence , a  lack of physical action , other than considerable finger pointing and posturing on which department is reponsible and why 'Mine is not ' . Have you not came to the conclusion I reached a long time ago , this is Thailand , they bleat and baaaaa about many things but have too little leadership to attain anything of dire consequence , all I can suggest is as has been reiterated many times before on this forum , LIVE WITH IT .

[Wombat6]

To control the breeding of these mosquitos, does this mean the authorities are going to pick up and get rid of all the plastic bags in Thailand?????? Plastic bags collect water and are therefore potential breeding grounds!!! Perhaps they could advertise the fact and get all the Thais and Burmese that are the major source of discarded bags to stop their habit and get them to pick up what they have already covered Thailand with.

[exexpat]

I personally know of a restaurant in Bangkok with twirling mosquito larvae in their bathroom water.  I mentioned it to the staff but I am quite sure nothing was done?   What do do in obvious cases like this?   I wanted to dump some poison into the water, but I don't know where to get any, and don't speak enough thai to explain.   Thais never use their brain for anything other than rip off schemes, which are quite imaginative to say the least.

I am going to stock up on rehydrating salts, just in case.   If i get sick I wont have the energy to go to 7-11 which ironically is kind of far from my place.  

I guess southern thailand now is in the midst of heavy rainfall.   But this dengue problem happens every year, and they NEVER learn.   According to a German study, the most affected area for dengue is Southeast Asia by far, even comparing to Africa, Amazon and rest of South America, etc.  

Now or even a month ago is the time to kill the larvae.   Malathion, for all the efforts in spraying, doesn't work on adult mosquitos.

Edited by exexpat, 2009-02-11 15:56:20.

[exexpat]

Cats claw, a South American herb, reportedly works well against dengue inflammation according to Brazilian scientists.   Its closest Asian relatives are the uncaria sinensis, uncaria gambir (gambir) of Malaysia, and Uncaria rhynchophylla (which seems to have similar active compounds).    It does not prevent dengue.

Edited by exexpat, 2009-02-11 16:53:03.

[iJuzWannaPreach]

Are they after all the blood sucking creatures ? or just the mozzies ?

[chiang mai]

Id68, on 2009-02-10 10:56:03, said:

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!...phoaw!




Don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating the gravity of the disease itself, but if the total this year is “1,675 so far” compared to “Last year saw a total of 91,003 patients, with 65,581 cases in 2007”...well, this thread strikes me as slightly sensationalist?

  

  Perhaps the inclusion of an overview of the disease itself would be more appropriate at the start of the thread with a complete listing of the statistics including: ratios/numbers of people suffering from the less voracious form of dengue who survived/or not as opposed to the same ratio/numbers caused by the second form (hemorrhaging)of dengue, the worst areas hit and at what time of the year and perhaps the inclusion of an overview of the disease itself…

  

  (Cue smartarse with link to such a thread on the forum…S.A. you’ve missed the point!)

  

  …With as an afterthought a comparison to the number of say, road accidents in the same period.

  

  People scare easily, but is this particular subject worthy of our emotions when compared to other areas…like reckless driving and its relation to obtaining a driving permit within half an hour as is the case in Thailand or unprotected sex and the increase of Aids by god knows how much  in the last few yeras?

Why is there always one in every thread these days!