Public Health Ministry imposes bubonic plague preventive measures at ports

The Ministry of Public Health has adopted surveillance measures at all ports throughout the country following a report of the Black Death in Madagascar.

The Ministry of Public Health has ordered officials in provinces with international ports to sterilize all ships anchoring in Thai ports and get rid of rats on board. Residents in maritime areas have also been urged to keep their houses clean and to stick to the correct methods of waste disposal.

The move came after a report of the Bubonic plague epidemic which has sickened more than 100 and killed 47 people in Madagascar in the past three months.

Bubonic plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, is a flea-born infection that spreads from rats or other rodents to humans and usually causes death. The symptoms of the plague include swellings in the groin, the neck and armpits and elsewhere, high fever, chills, muscle cramps, nausea, seizure and gangrene.

Bubonic plague has reportedly disappeared from Thailand since 1952. The Ministry Public Health has declared the Bubonic plague a dangerous, contagious disease. The disease still exists in some African and Asian countries.

NNT

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