The largest group affected were young children up to the age of four.

“Measles vaccination is free and is in line with Islamic principles,” Songkhla’s public-health chief Utissak Harirattanakul said yesterday, as he tried to encourage Muslim parents to get their children vaccinated against the highly communicable disease.

In a move to downplay locals’ concerns the vaccine may be haram (forbidden in Islam), Utissak said both the Sheikhul Islam Office and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s legal team had approved the measles vaccine.

Common symptoms of the measles virus, which can be fatal in severe cases, are fever, dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis and tiny white spots with bluish-white centres on a red background, also called Koplik’s spots, in the inner lining of the cheek.

Utissak urged parents to immediately take their child to the doctor if they develop any measles-like symptoms.

“Young kids should avoid known infected areas, and patients should be quarantined,” he said.

In Songkhla, one of the four southern border provinces, measles has hit 203 patients and killed one.

Earlier this week, Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre’s deputy secretary-general Somkiat Phonprayoon told relevant officials to go on a door-to-door campaign in the deep South to vaccinate children against measles. He said efforts must cover schools, as all children below the age of 12 must be vaccinated.

Somkiat said officials must explain to community and religious leaders the necessity for locals to have the right understanding of the vaccine.

Yala’s public-health chief Songkran Maichum said the number of measles infections in his province has already dropped due to serious campaigning.

“We have vaccinated up to 94 per cent of local children so far and hope to bring the number up to 95 per cent soon,” he said.

FOUR INTERNATIONAL researchers whose discoveries would help reduce mortality rates from CML leukaemia, breast cancer and cholera worldwide have been honoured with the 2018 Prince Mahidol Awards.

Professor Brian J Druker

In the field of medicine, the awards go to Professor Brian J Druker, director of Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, and to Dr Mary-Claire King, professor of Medical Genetics at University of Washington, it was revealed at a press conference yesterday at Siriraj Hospital.

Dr Mary-Claire King

Druker is recognised for his discovery of a prototype drug used for treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) that advances the development of targeted therapy, while King is recognised for identifying the most common and hereditable gene related to breast cancer as well as developing a breast cancer gene detection kit to provide effective screening and monitoring for people at risk.

Professor John D Clemens

In the field of public health, the awards go to Professor John D Clemens, director of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, and Professor Jan R Holmgren director of the Gothenburg University Vaccine Research Institute in Sweden. Both men worked jointly for over 30 years to study and develop the oral cholera vaccine (OCV).

Professor Jan R Holmgren

Their collaboration led to the Shanchol vaccine during the 2000s, which is low-cost and provides protection for up to five years and has been recommended by the World Health Organisation since 2010 for countries struggling to control cholera.

The winners were announced by Professor Prasit Watanapa, Dean of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital.

Prince Mahidol Award Foundation president HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will preside over the 2018 awards presentation ceremony at the Chakri Throne Hall on January 31, 2019 at 5.30pm.

A day prior to the ceremony, Siriraj Hospital will invite the 2018 Prince Mahidol Award laureates to deliver lectures based on their achievements, said Prasit in his capacity as the foundation vice president.

Carefully selected

The four laureates were carefully selected from among 49 nominations from 25 countries. A scientific advisory committee screened and made a short list of the candidates for the international award committee’s scrutiny and recommendations.

Then the board of trustees made the final decision on the award recipients at a meeting on November 2.

In the past 26 years, 79 individuals, groups of individuals, and institutions have received the awards from the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, which was established in 1992 in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of HRH Prince Mahidol of Songkhla.

Prince Mahidol is considered the father of modern medicine and public health in Thailand. Each award consists of a medal, a certificate and the sum of US $100,000 (Bt3.3 million).

Four Thai nationals were among the previous award recipients. Professor Prasong Tuchinda and Dr Suchitra Nimmannitya were conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of medicine in 1996, while Dr Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn and Mechai Viravaidya were conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of public health in 2009.

Among the award recipients, five have subsequently received the Nobel Prize:

l Professor Barry J Marshall from Australia was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of public health in 2001 for the discovery of a new bacterium identified as Helicobacter pylori that caused severe gastritis, and its sensitivity to particular antibacterial drugs. He received the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine in 2005 for the same discovery.

l Professor Harald Zur Hausen from Germany was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of medicine in 2005 for the discovery of human papilloma virus HPV16 and HPV18, from cancer tissues and elucidated the mechanism in which the viruses turn normal cells into cancer cells. He received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008 for the same discovery.

l Professor Satoshi Omura was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine in 1997. He is known for the discovery and development of various pharmaceuticals originally occurring in micro-organisms. His research group isolated a strain of Streptomyces avermitilis that produce the anti-parasitical compound avermectin, which contributed to the development of the drug ivermectin that is today used against river blindness, lymphatic filariasis and other parasitic infections. He received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015 for the same discovery.

l Professor Tu You You, a member of the China Cooperative Research Group on Qinghaosu and its Derivatives as Antimalarials, was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award for medicine in 2003 as an organisational category for the discovery of qinghaosu as a new drug for treatment of P Falciparum malaria. He received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015 for the same discovery.

l Sir Gregory Paul Winter was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award for medicine in 2016. He was a pioneer in the field of antibody engineering and modification technology. He invented techniques to humanise antibodies for therapeutic uses, which later led to the creation of cutting-edge therapeutic drugs. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2018 for the same discovery.

The programme is part of Thailand’s commitment to help fight climate change.

The attempt is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation yesterday to provide technical support.

The Forest Carbon Partnership has provided US$3.6 million (Bt118.6 million) to the project, which is due to end in September next year.

Pham Hang Thi Thanh, the FAO’s representative, said the organisation wants to provide technical support to Thailand to help it achieve its carbon emissions reduction target set under its nationally determined contribution (NDC).

The NDC targets are intended to cut greenhouse gases emissions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Thailand has set its NDC target at a 20-25 per cent reduction in 2030 from the 2005 baseline. This is around 110-140 million tonnes of carbon, according to the Office of the Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning.

While the energy and transport sectors are clearly targeted, reduction of carbon emissions from forests remains murky due to complications in measuring, reporting and verifying. It has been a sticking point since REDD was first adopted at the UN Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen in Denmark in 2009.

The idea has since been expanded to include other efforts, including sustainable forest management and the preservation of carbon stocks and is now known as REDD+.

Thanh said the FAO technical team would help Thailand develop the tools to monitor the forest trend and proceed with REDD+.

Director of the Forestry Climate Division Rattana Lukhanaworakul said Thailand is ready to work with the FAO to proceed with REDD+ and achieve the emission targets.

Forest targets have not yet been set.

Police say one of the three arrested men shamelessly told officers his gang from the Pathumwan Institute of Technology was avenging the September 25 murder of Anusorn Sondhi, 25, when it took the life of Kamonwich Suwanthat, a 24-year-old senior student at Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok, Uthenthawai campus.

Both shootings occurred in front of the victims’ relatives.

Anusorn was killed in Pathum Thani in front of his aunt. He was selling food with the aunt when two men approached on a motorcycle, one of them armed. Likewise, Kamonwich was helping his family sell food in Soi Nawamin 57 in Bangkok.

“We are angry and wanted revenge, so we decided to commit the murder in the same manner our senior was killed,” the suspect was quoted as saying.

“We chose to shoot a student from our rival school when he was with his mother so she would see him gunned down, just as our senior’s aunt saw her nephew gunned down right in front of her eyes.”

Anusorn had recently graduated from Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University but had attended Pathumwan Institute.

Police claim the suspects said they had not picked out Kamonwich because of any personal dispute but because he could be gunned down in the same manner as Anusorn.

Krissada Narapong, 21, Patipan Charoenchaikul, 21, and Saharat Dongphrachan, 20, were arrested on Monday for premeditated murder. The alleged shooter Prasit Yonpol, 23, and another accomplice, Jirapat Phetchrak, 21, are still being sought. Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) acting chief Pol Lt-General Sutthipong Wongpin said police would also investigate whether anyone else was involved, for instance by hiring the gang to kill Kamonwich, which would then enable police to invoke the wide-ranging anti-money laundering law against the accused.

MPB chief investigator, Pol Maj-General Itthipol Atchariyapradit, said the murder of Kamonwich allegedly stemmed from a years-old Uthenthawai-Pathumwan feud which had led to many fights and 15 criminal cases since 2014. He said the three suspects in custody had only made a partial confession, saying they had knowledge of the crime but denying having committed the shooting themselves.

Meanwhile, Kamonwich’s grief-stricken parents Narudom Suwanthat, 55, and Khemanit Suwanthat, 54, have urged the two sides to stop fighting.

The couple went to the Lat Phrao police station around midday yesterday to thank police for making the arrests and urge them to find the two suspects still at large. They told officers they wanted to see the faces of their son’s alleged killers.

The couple didn’t say a word to the suspects. “I just wanted to see them because they were very cruel to hurt my son,” Narudom said, while declining to comment on the feud that police believes was behind the two killings.

“Each institute is good. This is more of the individuals’ wrongdoing. If such wrongdoing individuals are not remorseful, there is no point in talking,” he added. His wife Khemanit urged senior students at technical institutes to teach younger people to behave virtuously and with a good conscience to end the inter-institute conflicts.

The couple said they would attend court hearings to see if the three men were given temporarily bail because that could pose a risk to the family’s safety.

Police presented the suspects to the Ratchadapisek Criminal Court at 1pm for their first 12-day detention period. They had already decided to oppose bail on the grounds that the men faced heavy sentences if found guilty and might tamper with evidence or intimidate witnesses if released. In the event, none of the defendants appeared to apply for bail anyway.

People traditionally release flower-bedecked floats in waterways on the day to pay homage to the River Goddess.

Yesterday, Governor Aswin Kwanmuang checked nine piers along the river, from Tha Chang to Rama VIII Bridge in Bangkok’s Bang Plat district.

“All piers have been checked for safety in advance. There are some 200 piers along the Chao Phraya and another 200 in connecting canals. Officials have already put up warning signs or have prohibited people from using piers that are in a poor condition,” Aswin said.

Signs limiting the number of people allowed at each pier have also been put up, he said, adding that he has already set a policy that this limit should not be crossed.

Concerned officials, such as police, volunteers and rescue workers, will be deployed and on stand-by at piers to ensure the safety of people. The Navy and marine police will also patrol the waterways.

He added that officials will also try to stop people, especially children, from getting into the water to collect coins from floats. He pointed out that last year an adult drowned after suffering from a cramp.

He has also banned the sale and setting alight of firecrackers and fireworks, as well as the releasing of floating lanterns during the festival. Those who violate the orders face up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of Bt60,000 or both.

People who float lanterns and cause damage to aircraft face either death, a life sentence or a jail term of 15 to 20 years as well as a fine of Bt600,000 or Bt800,000.

Loy Krathong can be marked at 30 public parks across the capital, including Lumpini, Chatuchak, Saranrom and Santichaiprakarn, from 5am until midnight.

People can call 199 or 1555 hotlines round the clock for emergency.

“We are going to establish a committee on Thai and international laws related to marijuana soon. This committee will talk with the Intellectual Property Department [IPD] to find solutions to patent issues,” Deputy PM and Justice Minister ACM Prajin Juntong said yesterday.

Civic organisations have lately cried foul after discovering that all cannabis-related applications filed for patents with the IPD came from foreigners.

Highland, a civic organisation pushing for the legalisation of medical marijuana in Thailand, yesterday asked why the IPD had accepted those applications when the plant remained illegal.

The legalisation of marijuana aside, Thai law in fact forbids patent registration of “naturally occurring micro-organisms and their components, animals, plants, or extracts from animals or plants”, it added.

According to Highland, cannabis-related patent applications in the IPD system involved natural compounds of cannabis. And despite the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) urging the IPD to revoke illegal patent requests in May, these applications have not yet been thrown out.

‘Reject at the first step’

“The IPD has a duty to reject the applications at the first step since they are against the law. But those [patent] requests have continued to exist in the IPD’s system,” Highland’s core members Chokwan Kitty Chopaka and Arun Avery said.

Claims by the IPD that it could not reject the applications because of the agreement on international property rights (TRIPS) were dismissed by BIOTHAI Foundation director Witoon Lianchamroon and FTA Watch. “The TRIPS agreement cannot override Thai law. Besides, that agreement has nothing to say about marijuana,” Witoon said.

Doubts are now emerging over whether the authorities’ push for legalisation of medical marijuana is intended to grant monopolies to those who have already prepared for legalisation. Thais have not had an opportunity to seek patents over marijuana because cannabis continues to be classified as an illegal drug.

Speaking at a seminar on medical marijuana laws in Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, Prajin yesterday said joint ventures could be considered if there were restrictions over medical formulas.

“We will make sure that foreigners are not the sole beneficiaries,” he said.

Prajin added that there were plans to let farmers in community enterprises grow cannabis.

“Cannabis exports will create opportunities for Thai farmers. But such farming will be allowed when we have put efficient control measures in place. We need to prevent cannabis from leaking to unauthorised persons,” he said.

The draft bill to allow marijuana use for medical and research purposes is now in the hands of the National Legislative Assembly.

At the same seminar with Prajin, Adam Benjamin from Medifarm Australia said cannabis extracts were useful to patients suffering from cancer, seizures, Parkinson’s and other diseases and conditions.

“Thailand should make use of the opportunities marijuana offers. We are ready to support Thailand’s research on medical marijuana. We won’t charge the Thai government for the support we will provide,” he said.

The ride at 3pm from the Dusit Palace’s Royal Plaza in Bangkok to Samut Prakan’s Lat Pho Park will cover 39 kilometres. There will be no fence between the monarch and spectators.

“The shirt will be blue and yellow and made of breathable fabric. It is going to be perfect for cycling,” His Majesty’s Assistant Private Secretary Air Marshal Pakdee Sangchuto said on Wednesday.

He said the shirt would also have the logo for Love and Warmth at Winter’s End for the Rattanakosin festival and a cartoon by the king.

Shirts will be given to registered participants for free.

The festival will be held at the Dusit Palace’s Royal Plaza between December 9 and January 19.

He told a press conference in Pattani that the November operation also netted 1,798 drug suspects along with a large batch of narcotics.

Srivara also said he had earlier obtained arrest warrants for eight suspects in two national security cases.

For the April 7 small bomb attacks on 18 locations in Pattani, the court approved the arrest warrants for five suspects – one of whom was already arrested. For the seizure of 965 bullets from a forest in Nong Chik, the court approved arrest warrants for three suspects, one of whom was already in custody.

Surachate presided over a ceremony to launch the new system, which has been used on trial basis at Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports since November 15.

The launch ceremony was held at Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Surachate said the new system has been available at Phuket International Airport since Monday, will be adopted in Chiang Mai on November 26 and to Krabi soon after, he said.

Surachate said the new system was launched under the concept of “Fast & Convenient Entry to Thailand”.

He said the system is to be targeted at citizens of Taiwan and 20 countries. Passport holders from those countries can register their request for a visa on arrival in advance at http://www.evisathailand.com.The request can be made 30 days in advance or at least 24 hours in advance.

Once the tourists arrive at the airports under the E-VOA system, they can show their passports at specially marked counters to obtain a visa in just one minute, rather than a one-to-two hour wait, said Surachate.