Warning on malaria, scrub typhus

Hikers were warned yesterday to beware catching malaria and scrub typhus, both of which can be fatal in serious cases.

The Disease Control Department said that 19,375 people had already caught malaria this year in different areas around the Kingdom. And 32 of these people had succumbed to the disease.

A further 2,111 people have come down with scrub typhus this year and two of them died, it said.

"Tourists who join ecological tours should protect themselves against mosquito bites and erect their tents away from damp areas where chiggers [tiny red bugs] are rife," department director-general Thawat Suntrajarn said yesterday. Mosquitoes spread malaria, and chiggers pass on scrub typhus.