6:44 PM
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Bangkok Post
SA KAEO : Eighteen Cambodian child beggars aged one to 10 were yesterday detained in a raid at a Thai-Cambodian border market, checked for hand, foot and mouth disease and forced to return to their country.
The anti-HFMD operation was jointly conducted by local disease control and immigration authorities at Rong Kluea market in Aranyaprathet district.
Some children found to have a high fever of more than 39C and runny noses were separated from the group over HFMD concerns, said Thanakris Saisin, a disease control officer at the Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint.
The sick were immediately taken to Cambodian health authorities at Poipet border checkpoint, he said.
Pol Lt Col Uthaiwan Promnok, chief of Sa Kaeo's immigration police, said local immigration police were instructed by the Royal Thai Police to work with other agencies to thoroughly check the Cambodian child beggars at the Rong Kluea market for possible signs of HFMD and to force them back into Cambodia.
About 300 Cambodian children at the same checkpoint were taken by their parents to Thai health officials in the hope of getting a free health check-up, Mr Thanakris said.
Of this number, three children had a high fever and sickness, he said.
Elsewhere in the country, Uttaradit health office said 61 cases of HFMD infections had been reported in nine districts of the northern province.
Three pre-school centres were yesterday ordered to shut down temporarily after HFMD cases were reported, said Dr Phureewath Chokkerd, the provincial health chief.
A big cleaning campaign kicked off at 214 child development centres in the province in a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus, he said.
Similar hygienic improvement work was carried out in Songkhla province in the South as a result of the outbreak of HFMD cases.
One more school in the province was yesterday ordered to be closed temporarily after about six students were found to have the virus, said Dr Suwich Thampaolo, head of the 12th Disease Control Office in the province.
One more case of HFMD was also reported in Phop Phra district of Tak in the North. The patient was a female Prathom 1 (Grade 1) student of Ban Pakha Mai School.
The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) said six more schools under its jurisdiction were closed yesterday due to the spread of HFMD, bringing the number of Obec schools closed to contain the spread of the virus to 21.
In related news, Mae Hong Son's chief health chief officer said the number of patients diagnosed with dengue fever has been on the rise this year. As of yesterday, 34 cases of dengue fever had been reported in seven districts of the province, he said.
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