Category Archives: Northern Thailand tourism

Drug resistant malaria on Thailand-Burma border grows by 3,335%

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Field microscopy along the Thailand-Burma border. Photo: Courtesy SMRU

Two recent studies of malaria along the Thailand-Burma border show that drug-resistant malaria in the region is increasing at an alarming rate, with one study showing a 3,335 percent increase in the last 10 years. The reports, Emergence of artemisinin-resistant malaria on the western border of Thailand: a longitudinal study published in The Lancet and A Major Genome Region Underlying Artemisinin Resistance in Malaria, published in the journal Science, show drug-resistant malaria is rapidly moving into new areas Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the US National Institutes of Health, the two research projects included scientists from Bangkok’s Mahidol University, the Centre for Tropical Medicine at Britain’s Oxford University, and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in the USA, found that … Continue reading →

Chiang Mai tourist death probe finds no common link – PR campaign launched to protect tourism industry

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Final report into the deaths of five foreign tourists and one Thai tourist guide in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

Improper handling of pathology samples and limited cooperation by relatives are blamed by Thailand authorities for scientists on four continents being unable to determine a causative agent or a common factor linking the deaths of five tourists and a Thai tourist guide in the Northern City of Chiang Mai earlier this year. After five months of investigation and thousands of laboratory tests the investigative panel formed to probe the Chiang Mai tourist death cluster yesterday handed down a report that raises more questions than it answers, while at the same time announcing a raft of new initiatives to protect the region and country’s precious tourism industry from dangers that it says weren’t responsible for the deaths of tourists in Chiang Mai … Continue reading →

War of words over Chiang Mai tourist deaths report

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60 Minutes New Zealand report on the Chiang Mai tourist deaths

When New Zealand 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Hall wrapped her arms around a tearful Emma Carter in the final seconds of its To die for episode on the death of her daughter Sarah Carter while staying at the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai, Thailand earlier this year, few people could be forgiven for thinking that the evidence was overwhelming that chlorpyrifos poisoning was to blame, and Chiang Mai authorities were guilty of a sinister cover-up. However, while 60 Minutes was careful to use the word “theory” twice in the programme, statements by its expert, scientist Dr Ron McDowall, in the final minutes of the programme that the symptoms exhibited by Ms Carter prior to her death “perfectly” fitted with chlorpyrifos … Continue reading →

Thailand authorities dismiss chlorpyrifos as cause of Chiang Mai hotel tourist deaths

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The Downtown Inn, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: Supplied

Thailand public health authorities have dismissed claims made by New Zealand 60 Minutes that the widely-used chemical agent chlorpyrifos is behind the deaths of a number of tourists at the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai earlier this year. The New Zealand current affairs program, supported by United Nations scientist Dr. Ron McDowall, made the claim in an episode titled To Die For, in which Dr. McDowall said he believed the dead Chiang Mai tourists had been “killed by an overzealous sprayer who’s been acting on the instructions of the hotel owner to deal with bed bugs,” Dr. McDowall said he had consulted with other experts in New Zealand and Italy and all agreed the likely cause of death of the … Continue reading →

Chiang Mai tourist death hotel mystery remains – governor slams foreign media report

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Chiang Mai Provincial Governor; Mom Luang Panadda Diskul slammed foreign media reports

This story was updated at 10:25am May 15, 2011. Additional/ edited text in green type. Mystery still surrounds the deaths of six foreign tourists and a Thai national tourist guide who stayed at The Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai earlier this year, with Provincial Governor ML Panadda Disakul criticising foreign media for exaggerating news that the Dow Chemical Co. chlorpyrifos was found in the room of dead New Zealand woman Sarah Carter. Mr. Panadda also dismissed claims made by a New Zealand-based United Nations scientist, who told New Zealand’s 60 Minutes program last Sunday that in his opinion Ms. Carter had been “killed by an overzealous [insecticide] sprayer”, saying there is no medical proof. On the 60 Minutes report Dr. … Continue reading →

Dow chemical’s chlorpyrifos pesticide found in Chiang Mai tourist death hotel

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Chlorpyrifos Insecticide produced by S.D. Agro Chemicals of India.

An investigation conducted by New Zealand’s 60 Minutes current affairs program titled To Die For has found high levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in The Downtown Inn, the Chiang Mai hotel linked to the deaths of at least seven tourists earlier this year (see: Lost smiles in LOS as Thailand travel tragedies website goes live). 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Hall traveled to Chiang Mai and stayed at The Downtown Inn in the Night Bazaar section of the city and took swab samples from the hotel back to New Zealand for analysis, with further tests conducted in Italy. First produced in 1965 by Dow Chemical Company, chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate, is a popular ingredient in flea collars and shampoo for dogs, and … Continue reading →

Lost smiles in LOS as Thailand travel tragedies website goes live

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Not a tawdry backpacker hotel. The Downtown Inn, Chiang Mai, Thailand

This story was updated at 20:23 April 14, 2011. Edited text in blue type. Known internationally as the land of smiles (LOS), a new website that went live today, Thailand Travel Tragedies, is the sort of website sure to wipe the smiles off the faces off the people at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) when they return from the Songkran holidays. Thailand Travel Tragedies has been set up to “list all occurrences of fatalities or serious illness contracted [by foreigners] while visiting Thailand”, and is actively soliciting contributions from anyone with Thailand holiday fatality or serious injury tales to tell. The idea for the website evolved following the death from an as yet unexplained reason of 23-year-old New Zealand … Continue reading →