Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has assigned the Department of Disease Control to monitor India's tomato flu outbreak despite the lack of cases in Thailand, says deputy government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul.
She said yesterday that even though there has been no report of a local outbreak, it is necessary to monitor the disease because Thailand has reopened for tourism and must prepare for screenings and treatments.
Initial reports have indicated that tomato flu patients only show mild symptoms and the disease has not spread widely.
Ms Traisuree said polymerase chain reaction tests are already available in both public and private hospitals in Thailand.
Ramathibodi Hospital's Centre for Medical Genomics posted on its Facebook page on Friday saying that tomato flu could be a variant of hand, foot and mouth disease.
The latest tomato flu outbreak was first found in Kerala in southern India where children aged under five have been diagnosed with the virus, it said.
The Centre for Medical Genomics said children are especially vulnerable to the virus as it spreads via contact with unclean surfaces.
Children with the disease will develop red blisters on their skin, which is contagious through close contact, it said.
