An additional 6,000 bottles of hand, foot and mouth disease medicine were distributed.

According to the Ministry of Health , due to the increasing number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases, although more treatment drugs have been imported, the Ministry is still directing import facilities to ensure drug supply according to the needs of hospitals in the near future.

The Ministry of Health also requested localities to proactively develop plans for storage, procurement and promptly report to the Ministry of Health in case of supply shortages to ensure treatment and disease prevention. Currently, the drugs used in the treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease basically meet the needs of medical facilities. However, in recent times, there has been a local shortage of intravenous immunoglobulin.

6,000 more bottles of hand, foot and mouth disease medicine were distributed to hospitals. Image 1 — Hand, foot and mouth disease is complicated in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health)

According to the Drug Administration, Immunoglobulin is a biological drug, produced from a special source of raw materials, especially human blood plasma. Therefore, drug production depends heavily on the supply of raw materials.

However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of blood donors has decreased significantly, leading to a long-term shortage of raw materials for the production of Immunoglobulin. Therefore, the amount of drugs produced is not enough to meet the treatment needs on a global scale.

Since the end of December 2022, the Ministry of Health has issued a document directing medical examination and treatment facilities and drug import establishments to proactively plan, order and purchase drugs in accordance with regulations to ensure adequate drug supply for treatment. At the same time, the Ministry of Health has continuously issued professional instructions, urged epidemic prevention work, and requested businesses to make efforts to find drug supplies for the treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease.

However, in addition to the facilities that have proactively planned and purchased drugs, there are still some facilities that have not been really proactive in purchasing and storing drugs. In addition, the situation of hand, foot and mouth disease this year is quite complicated, the number of severe cases has increased compared to previous years, so the demand for Immunoglobulin has also increased dramatically.

According to the report, in about 1 month (from May 19 to June 18, 2023), the whole country had 5,383 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease. In the first 6 months of 2023, the whole country recorded 12.6 million cases of hand, foot and mouth disease.

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