Don't take kids to Singapore: Thais

Don't take kids to Singapore: Thais

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand has urged parents not to take their
children to Singapore in the wake of a possible outbreak of a
lethal strain of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) there,
newspaper reports said on Tuesday.

The health ministry issued warned that children under 15
should not travel to city state, where a four-year-old boy died
last week after being infected by the strain.

"If the trip cannot be canceled, please take care of the
personal hygiene of all children traveling," the secretary
general of the Communicable Diseases Control Department, Somsong
Rukphao, told The Nation newspaper.

Thai children traveling to Singapore should wash their hands
before meals and after touching objects in public places, such as
handrails, Somsong said. The health official also discouraged
Thai children from playing with Singaporean children and swimming
in public pools.

In October, four Singapore children and four in neighboring
Malaysia died and more than 2,000 others were infected by the
same enterovirus 71 (EV71) strain of HFMD.