Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - December 27, 2006
Anucha Charoenpo
Health officials fear the possible spread of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, diarrhoea, avian influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, particularly Aids.
Mukdahan and Savannakhet health officials recently signed an agreement under the Communicable Disease Control Cross Border Cooperation pact to coordinate efforts to detect and fight the diseases.
"This bridge is rather a major obstacle preventing and controlling infectious diseases," said Thatchai Jaikhong, Mukdahan Public Health Office deputy chief.
A better transport system would lead to more people visiting the border province and other parts of Thailand from Laos and Vietnam.
This would facilitate the spread of infectious diseases in the border region, particularly among sex workers and their customers, he said.
The bridge, which was inaugurated last Wednesday, will be opened after the two countries agree on the rules and regulations governing its use. The bridge connects with Road 9 in Laos which runs all the way to neighbouring Vietnam.
Dr Thatchai said the main worry was an increase in the number of HIV/Aids-infected people in the province.
There were 826 HIV/Aids patients in the province receiving anti-retroviral drugs from the Health Provincial Office and the Mukdahan Hospital.
However it was believed there were many more carriers of the HIV/Aids virus who were either embarrassed about receiving medical treatment from the state or were unable to access treatment.
Dr Thatchai said about 270 public health officials had already undergone extra training and would work closely with the local networks.
Information on any disease outbreak in Thailand would immediately be passed by Mukdahan officials to their Lao counterparts so that proper measures could be put in place to check its spread.
Panom Phongmany, deputy director of the Savannakhet Provincial Health Department, said the spread of Aids in the Lao southern province was being taken very seriously.
Laos had deployed health volunteers to educate female sex workers and labourers about Aids prevention in the province. There were 939 people in Savannakhet known to have HIV/Aids.
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