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.