In the Thai border town of Mae Sot community development officers are organizing door-to-door checks in an effort to eliminate standing waste water where mosquitoes can breed.

In refugee camps on the Thai Burma border aid workers have begun fumigating residential areas and are mounting an awareness campaign to inform camp residents how to protect themselves.

Ms Aya Tabata, coordinator of the 'Stop Dengue – Protect Your Family' campaign told Karen News that the community response to the 2015 campaign has been encouraging.

She said: “After testing various campaign messages with community groups, we have produced a number of materials.”

She explained that the campaign would use video, community service announcements, newsletters, posters, stickers and leaflets for distribution.

“We found out that people wanted information that told them directly what they had to do – clean up their house and garden areas where mosquitoes could lay eggs. We produced the information for the campaign in Thai, Karen and Burmese languages,” she said.

Ms Tabata warned that 2015 could be a bad year for dengue.

“Every two years we experience bad outbreaks in the region. The last severe one was in 2013, she said. ”

Ms Tabata said that dengue hit families hard and places an extra financial burden on them, especially if a child has the dengue virus.

“Family members have to take time off work to look after their sick child and it can be up to 10 days – that’s difficult especially so for migrant workers,” she explained.

Ms Tabata urged health workers and communities on both sides to work together to help stop dengue.

She warned: “Mosquitos do not recognize borders and dengue fever, at the very least, is painful and at its worst is fatal. The Stop Dengue campaign has produced materials in languages and in a format that people can easily understand and take action – this important.”

Rural daily labourers Khun Than Cho and her husband, U Myint Aung, were planting corn in Myawaddy, Burma when they got a call telling them that their daughter Aye Aye was sick.

Khun Than Cho said that despite being in the middle of the corn planting season she and her husband immediately stopped working to care for their daughter.

She said: “Aye Aye had a high fever, abdominal pains and aches in her arms and legs. At the clinic [in Myawaddy] they tested for malaria and dengue fever. After five days the medic noticed Aye Aye had a rash and it looked like she had dengue. We were advised to take her to Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot.”

Now feeling better after being put on an IV drip to rehydrate her and having been given medicine to reduce her fever, Aye Aye is getting back to her old self and has started to eat food again and get out of bed.

U Myint Aung told Karen News that the family was worried sick when Aye Aye first contracted dengue fever.

“We thought she would die, she was vomiting, couldn’t open her eyes and didn’t want food. Now she is getting better and eating – we lost about 10 days off work, but our daughters health is important, we will carry on,” he said.

Edited for BNI by Mark Inkey