Hand, foot and mouth disease in Ho Chi Minh City increases sharply

The disease has increased sharply in the past 3 weeks.

Recently, the working delegation of the Ministry of Health led by Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong - Deputy Minister of Health visited and worked with a number of units in Ho Chi Minh City to monitor disease prevention work in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the working session at City Kindergarten (Vo Thi Sau Ward, District 3), the working delegation inspected the situation of infectious disease prevention for children.

Hand, foot and mouth disease in Ho Chi Minh City increases health department's surveillance picture 1 — The entire health system is focusing on responding to the hand, foot and mouth disease epidemic (photo source: Ministry of Health).

Receiving the delegation, Ms. Mai Yen Hang - Principal of the school said that although it is summer vacation, the school still organizes activities and about 80% of children participate in summer school. Disease prevention work for children is therefore also strengthened more strictly.

Present at the school, the Deputy Minister and the working delegation provided additional instructions on disease prevention for children such as temperature control, teaching children how to maintain hygiene, and wash their hands thoroughly.

In particular, schools must pay attention to children showing signs of fever and red rashes in the hand, foot and mouth area.

At Children's Hospital 1, reporting to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Director of the hospital said that the situation of hand, foot and mouth disease has increased sharply in the past 3 weeks although it is not yet the peak season. Notably, the number of severe cases has increased 2.5 times compared to previous years, and there have been 4 deaths.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hung, in previous years, hand, foot and mouth disease only increased in August and September, when children started the new school year. But this year, the disease has increased by this time, and may reach its peak in the near future. The disease also progresses in a complicated manner.

Notably, most of the hospitalizations came from neighboring provinces, with many children hospitalized when their condition was already at level 3.

He said this is a seasonal disease and progresses quite quickly. Many parents are subjective when they see that their children only have mild symptoms so they do not take them to medical facilities for examination. By the time they are hospitalized, the children have become seriously ill.

Children's Hospital 1 alone has admitted more than 10 children with severe hand, foot and mouth disease requiring ventilators in the past few days, while two weeks ago there were no cases requiring intensive care.

On June 21, the hospital received 5 consecutive cases of very severe hand, foot and mouth disease, treated at the Intensive Care and Anti-Poison Department.

In addition, more than 60 children with less severe conditions are being treated at the Department of Infectious Diseases - Neurology.

In critical cases, where the patient stops breathing, doctors must combine many measures to save their lives.

For example, a 14-month-old girl was admitted to the hospital a week ago. The first three days she had a mild fever, a rash on her hands and feet, and a sore throat. After that, the fever subsided but she often had startles in her sleep.

On the 5th day, the baby started to move around a lot while sleeping, the family took him to the hospital but the rapid progression led to respiratory failure. The baby stopped breathing, the doctor intubated him and transferred him to the intensive care unit to be ventilated, but he suffered from cardiovascular collapse, rapid pulse, low blood pressure, and life-threatening conditions. The doctor had to use vasopressors to support the heart, anti-shock IV fluids, and emergency blood filtration.

The Ministry of Health has anti-epidemic scenarios.

Sharing about the sharp increase in hand, foot and mouth disease in Ho Chi Minh City, Prof. Dr. Phan Trong Lan, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine, said that the city and the Ministry of Health have had scenarios for the current situation.

For the city, or hospitals, departments all have plans, proactively treat and coordinate with each other. In the worst case, the disease increases rapidly, it is still possible to meet the treatment needs of patients.

However, he also suggested that leading experts need to contribute ideas and provide further guidance to medical facilities to detect cases early to limit the disease from becoming severe and causing death.

Acknowledging the actual situation in Ho Chi Minh City, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong highly appreciated the treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease in particular and other epidemics at Children's Hospital 1, helping to reduce complications and deaths in children.

The Deputy Minister commented that with the current epidemic situation, the city needs to further strengthen propaganda and education work for the people.

In particular, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health must coordinate with the Department of Education to educate and prevent diseases for children in schools. Limit the spread and spread of epidemics in schools.

However, given that most of the cases come from neighboring provinces, the Deputy Minister said that hospitals, especially the four infectious disease hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, must support and coordinate with local hospitals to have a scientific and appropriate referral system. Cases of any severity should be transferred to higher levels, and cases that can be treated locally should be treated to avoid overload.

The Deputy Minister also said that the Ministry of Health has coordinated with local ministries and sectors to participate in the prevention of hand, foot and mouth disease. Local facilities must proactively prevent the disease, classify and classify patients, and support patients to transfer to appropriate facilities.

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