On the evening of June 5, the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City said that the research team of Children's Hospital 6 (HCMC) and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) - Hospital for Tropical Diseases Ho Chi Minh City had sequenced the gene. 1 patient samples of pediatric patients with hand, foot and mouth disease are B6 - genotype (subgenotype) of EV5. This is the cause of severe hand, foot and mouth disease in children.
A doctor examines a child with hand, foot and mouth disease at Children's Hospital 1 (HCMC). (Photo: Hai Yen)
Accordingly, all 6 samples with severe symptoms being treated at Children's Hospital 1 were positive for EV71 and all had genotype B5. This genotype was first found in Taiwan (China) in 2007 and in Ho Chi Minh City in 2015, 2018.
According to the Department of Health, according to disease surveillance data of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), the number of children with hand, foot and mouth disease in the city has shown signs of rapid increase in recent weeks. Specifically, the number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases started to increase from week 19 to week 22. In which, the number of cases in week 22 was more than twice the number of cases in week 2.
Besides, according to the annual progress of dengue epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City, the peak season of the disease will start around the 25th week (about the next 2 to 3 weeks) and is expected to last until the end of October. .
In the past 2 weeks, although only a few rains have appeared, but through the monitoring of epidemic prevention activities in wards and communes by HCDC, there have been 20 risk points (with larva) out of a total of 39 monitored points. , accounting for more than 50%.
This rate will certainly be higher when the city enters the rainy season, if each locality and each household does not drastically kill mosquitoes and larvae to control the epidemic.
From the above facts, the HCDC said that in the coming months, Ho Chi Minh City faces a great risk of epidemics if the whole city does not take the initiative to simultaneously implement measures to control both these diseases from now on.
