Deaths not a fluke

Some weeks ago I was taken ill with abdominal pain, constant vomiting and diarrhoea, so my wife took me to a hospital in Khon Kaen where, after 24 hours, I was diagnosed with liver flukes. There is a simple but very expensive cure for this, which involves taking four tablets of a drug called Triclabendazole and bottles of antibiotics over 36 hours. My bill for the medicine alone came to over 13,000 baht. Having had long chats with my doctor, who told me that liver flukes cause more deaths among Thai people in the Northeast than any other disease because state hospitals offer no cure other than treatment at a private hospital, which of course those affected cannot afford. Being surprised by this information, I did a bit of research, and came up with this information from the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand:

“Southeast Asian Liver Fluke (Opisthorchis Viverrini) infection is particularly prevalent in the Northeast of Thailand. Liver flukes are found in many species of freshwater fish in the Northeast, where fish is often consumed fresh and uncooked. According to the Udon Thani Regional Cancer Centre (some years ago), as many as six million people in the Northeast were afflicted with a liver fluke infection.

Statistics released in 2009 by the Thai Public Health Ministry show that 28,000 people die from the liver fluke disease every year, which is an average of 76 people a day. This statistic is quite stunning, and seems to also include patients dying from acute and chronic cholangitis (infection of the bile tract), not just from liver cancer.

Nowhere does the ministry say that there is a cure. Why? Surely state hospitals should be able to treat this disease instead of sending patients home to die. If the country can afford such things as unnecessary submarines and war weapons, they can afford to save the lives of the 76 people who die daily.

PETER Kalasin