Royal Duties Associated with Medicine and Public Health in Thailand to Ensure Good Health for the People and Animals in the Northeast
Professor Dr. Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol has long been inspired to dedicate herself to helping the Thai people. Since her childhood, Her Royal Highness accompanied His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother to every region in Thailand on visits to care for the suffering and promote happiness of the Thai people. This experience has enabled Her Royal Highness to understand the people’s hardships, especially from diseases, due to their lack of access to standard medical and public health services. Moreover, the compassion of Her Royal Highness extends to animal health as animals can be disease-carriers to humans. Therefore, to ensure inclusive and comprehensive treatment, Her Royal Highness graciously dispatched the Royal Medical Unit of Chulabhorn Hospital and the Chulabhorn Veterinary Volunteer Unit to increase the efficiency in healthcare, disease prevention, and address public health issues of the people, as well as conduct campaigns to promote the prevention of the spread of rabies in the northeast in Nakhon Ratchasima, BuriRam, Surin, and Si Sa Ket provinces from November 24-28, 2023.
On this occasion, Her Royal Highness made visits and provided moral support to the team of doctors, nurses, and medical personnel from Chulabhorn Hospital, The Provincial PMMU Unit (Princess Mother’s Medical Volunteer Unit), Provincial Public Health Office, and community hospitals in each area, such as Khon Buri Hospital, Nong Ki Hospital, Surin Hospital, Sisaket Hospital, etc., all of which joined in providing health check-ups and general medical treatments, offering advice and consultation on health and hygiene problems to local people, as well as providing dental services, and Thai traditional medical treatment. All of the aforementioned services were aimed at promoting and rehabilitating people’s health in a comprehensive manner and free of charge. A total of 371 patients received treatment with common health problems including musculoskeletal and joint diseases, neurological disorders, respiratory diseases, and gastrointestinal tract diseases, etc.
Afterwards, Her Royal Highness distributed vaccines against rabies to the Head of Provincial Livestock Office in each area for further injections across target groups of animals to build herd immunity. Rabies is an important public health issue in the country with the spread of the disease in some areas. When the virus enters the body through saliva, notably from bites or wound licking, it will cause infection and lead to death. At present, there is no medicine to cure rabies, but the disease is preventable with annual rabies vaccination.
At the same time, Her Royal Highness performed veterinary medicine work by collaborating with veterinarians from Chulabhorn Veterinary Volunteer Unit to perform sterilization surgery on both people-owned pets and stray animals, as a permanent birth control method to ensure that the number of animal population would not exceed manageable level. As for the sterilization surgical procedure, all animals undergoing sterilization were well taken care of. This included the administration of anesthesia and the monitoring of vital signs with modern veterinary tools and devices to assess and ensure the maximum safety during the operation.
The dispatch of Chulabhorn Veterinary Volunteer Unit to various areas aligns with the strategy of HRH Princess Chulabhorn’s project on “Disease-free Animals, Safe Humans from Rabies”, aiming to proactively establish rabies-free areas at the local level, under the collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Provincial Livestock Offices, and other relevant local agencies, to provide services of rabies vaccination and sterilization to control the spread of the stray dog population in the areas, as well as conduct campaigns for proper knowledge and understanding of self-protection against rabies, aligning with the intention of Her Royal Highness to ensure that people have in-depth knowledge of the disease. Rabies is a silent, life-threatening danger close to humans. Therefore, all relevant sectors need to be stimulated to foster cooperation and extend the project’s impact to their communities, as well as cultivate a proper attitude among pet owners to responsibly care for their pets and refrain from abandoning them, thus preventing them to become a burden on society. In summary, during these activities, 715 dogs and cats were vaccinated against rabies, and 698 were sterilized.
The benevolence of Her Royal Highness for treatment and prevention of diseases has promoted good health for the Thai people, as well as stray animals and people’s pets. These endeavors reflect the strong commitment of Her Royal Highness to campaigning for the promotion of providing medical and public health services in areas across the country, genuinely for the maximum benefit of the people. This is also in harmony with the One Health Concept which is an integrated approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems, enabling their safe coexistence which would position Thailand to emerge as an international health hub in the future.
Public Relations Section, Office of the President
November 29, 2023
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