Military medics treat Thai flood victims

2011-11-10 1

Military medics patrol flood-hit areas of Bangkok.
Floodwaters in the north of the Thai capital have remained high for nearly two weeks.
Medical teams like these are using boats to reach areas cut off by waters as high as 1.2 metres.
The teams offer health checks to those who have had to evacuate their homes, delivering medicine and transporting the sick to hospital.
(SOUNDBITE) (Thai) DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT AT PRA MONGKUT:
"Some patients with chronic diseases cannot go to hospital and they don't have medicine, for example, a patient with diabetes and hypertension. We are trying our best to deliver them medicine, but if they're in serious condition, we will transfer them immediately to the hospital."
The slow-moving disaster began after a tropical storm battered Southeast Asia in late July.
Since then at least 529 people have been killed in floods that have inundated 63 of Thailand's 77 provinces.
Simon Hanna, Reuters.