In-depth
Hand, foot, mouth disease rises in HCM City
  • | dtinews.vn | September 28, 2018 07:42 AM
The number of patients with hand, foot and mouth disease has sharply increased in Ho Chi Minh City.

   

Hand, foot, mouth disease rises in HCM City

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that since early 2018, over 30,000 cases of hand, foot, mouth disease have been reported in 63 provinces and cities along with 42,600 cases of dengue fever, of which nine patients have died.

In August, 1,010 patients went to hospitals for dengue fever, an increase of 41.46% compared to previous months. 4,511 patients were admitted for hand, foot, mouth disease, doubled the previous month.

According to the Centre for Preventive Medicine in HCM City, there have been 12,282 dengue fever cases and 3,195 hand, foot, mouth disease cases. There are currently no vaccines to protect against both dengue fever and hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Some days, over 200 patients were admitted to the Children's Hospital 1, over 50% have EV71 virus which can cause illness ranging from mild through to serious with life-threatening complications such as respiratory failure and heart failure. Ten patients are on ventilators, five need hemodialysis and one died seven hours after being admitted. EV71 is also the virus that caused hand, foot, mouth outbreak in 2011.

From September 14 to 20, 286 patients were admitted to hospital because of hand, foot, mouth disease, an increase of 47% compared to the same period in the previous month. Dr Nguyen Minh Tien from City Children's Hospital said they received 48 in-patients each day. Two cases have turned for worse and need ventilators. The Children's Hospital 2 is also in the same situation.

A parent from Binh Duong Province said her oldest son had had hand, foot, mouth disease before and was treated quickly. But her 3-year-old daughter was not so lucky. She had a high fever last week and was admitted to Children's Hospital 2. But she had seizures and fell into a coma overnight.

Meanwhile, the northern region is dealing with 1,101 measles cases. 383 confirmed cases are in Hanoi, 168 in Lao Cai and 154 in Thanh Hoa Province. According to the Vietnam National Hospital of Paediatrics, they have received 500 patients, 90% of them are children under five and haven't been vaccinated.

There are also a number of hand, foot, mouth disease cases.

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