Dengue fever is ravaging Thailand with double the infections reported this year, though fatalities in Bangkok have been few.
Once a rural rarity that has threatened to leap from epidemic to endemic, nearly 20,000 cases were reported nationwide through April – twice the number in 2018 during the same period, according to the Bureau of Epidemiology. Twenty-four were killed during that period.
Of course, any conclusions depend on confidence in the data – the bureau said only one person had died in the capital as of late April; the Disease Control Department put the number through March at nine. Both agencies are under the Public Health Ministry.
Last year, dengue deaths in Bangkok spiked as thousands took ill from the mosquito-borne virus.
City Hall is urging residents to press the fight by fumigating their properties and draining standing water.
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