The World Health Organisation (WHO) is fully backing Thailand’s investigation into a series of  mysterious deaths in a Chiang Mai hotel, a senior health official said.
“Basically, WHO experts are of the opinion that Thai authorities are proceeding in accordance with principles and standard procedures,” Dr Surasing Wisarutrat, deputy chief of Chiang Mai’s public health office, said.
He added that WHO experts had also suggested that the investigation focus on three likely causes: infection, chemicals and environment.
“We were planning to do that anyway,” he added.
Sarah Carter, 23, a tourist from New Zealand, died mysteriously in her room at the Downtown Inn Hotel in Chiang Mai in February.
Canadian Bill Mah, 59, died after using the facilities of the Downtown Inn - the same hotel linked to the deaths of an elderly British couple, a Thai tourist guide and 23-year-old New Zealand tourist Sarah Carter.
Carter died in hospital from a heart inflammation two days after she and two friends became sick while staying at the Inn, which is in the heart of Chiang Mai next to the popular Night Bazaar markets.
Two other women, who were not staying at the Inn, have also died in the city in similar circumstances within a month. Thai authorities deny any link between the deaths, but victims’ families are demanding answers, with some alleging there is a cover-up into the real cause.
Details about Bill Mah have emerged after his friend Ken Fraser raised questions about his death.
Mah wasn’t staying at the Downtown Inn, but Fraser said the 59-year-old had used the hotel’s facilities, including the swimming pool, for which coupons were available in his own hotel.
Mah had been in Chiang Mai for two weeks before falling ill at a dinner party on January 24. The next morning, he complained of lack of sleep because of chest pains and was taken to hospital, where tests ruled out a heart attack.
Fraser said his friend had only just retired from work after having gone 25 years without missing a single day through illness.
A report states “suspected natural disease pending lab reports and toxicology” as the cause of death, but Fraser said those results and the official cause of death had not been released. “I know Bill used the facilities at the Downtown Inn because he asked me to go there with him but I had other things to do. What natural disease are they saying he had?”
Mah’s friends and relatives are now joining a chorus of people who believe Thai authorities are playing down the presence of a virus.
Carter’s father, Richard Carter, believes there is a cover-up. He has called for the Downtown Inn to be closed until the truth is uncovered and would like to see an independent investigation into the deaths.

GROWING TOLL IN CHIANG MAI

• Jan 11: American Mariam Soraya Vorster, 33, staying at a different hotel, but dies from swelling of the heart.
• Jan 26: Canadian Bill Mah, 59, dies after using the facilities of the Downtown Inn.
• Jan 9-Feb 4: A French woman died during this period from swelling of the heart.
• Feb 3: Thai tourist guide Waraporn Pungmahisiranon, 47, dies in the Downtown Inn.
• Feb 4: Kiwi Sarah Carter, 23, taken from Downtown Inn to hospital. She died two days later, also with swelling of the heart.
• Feb 18: British couple George and Eileen Everitt, who are in their 70s, both die from heart attacks at the Downtown Inn.