A study of three endemic diseases in rural areas of Northeast Thailand

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We surveyed diarrhea, parasitic diseases, urolithiasis, and food and drinking water in villages in Khon Kaen district in northeast Thailand.Diarrhea team ; A questionnaire study indicated that 93% of the residents used rain water stored in a container for drinking and that 22 or 28% of them answered that they filtrate and/or boil water before drinking it. A microbiological survey indicated that more than half of drinking water samples collected from containers storing rain were contaminated with some kinds of enteropathogenic bacteria. The most fruitful results of this study was that some strains of a new species of Vibrio sp., V.cholerae O139, synonyms Bengal cholerae, were isolated from both environmental and human fecal samples.Parasitic disease team : Average infection rate of parasites at 4 villages was 28.5%. Prevalence of Opisthorchis viverrini (21.4%) was highest, followed in order by hookworm and Echinostoma sp. Re-survey 9 months after treatment was carried out in 2 villages. … More The prevalence of O.viverrini in Dondoo Village decreased from that before treatment, whereas that in Khokklang Village didn't change. No larvae of Gnathostoma spinigerm were detected in swamp eels collected in Khon Kaen District.Urolithiasis team : Three hundred and sixty-seven persons were examined by abdominal ultrasound (US). Abnormal findings were detected in 39 persons (10.6%) ; renal calculi in 31 persons (8.4%), hydronephrosis in 16 persons (4.4%), and renal cyst in one person (0.3%). We compared urinary biochemical composition of stone formers with healthy controls. However, there was no significant difference between the urinary compositions of stone formers and healthy controls.Food and drinking water team : Bacteria in local traditional foods were investigated. Bacillus was the most dominant genus in condiments such as nam-pla (fish sauce) and kapi-paste. Ten strains of enterotoxin-producing Bacillus cereus were detected in kapi-paste, nam-pla and pla-kem, which are commonly used for food preparation in Thailand. Less