A nurse is taking care of a patient (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – The
at in Ho Chi Minh City have been .
At present, the hospital is treating one patient
infected with the virus and using breathing machine aids, while following three
others suspected.
No new cases were reported in recent days.
From June 11, the hospital received at least 24
infected with A/H1N1, two of whom died, increasing the total number of
A/H1N1-related fatalities in HCM City from the beginning of 2018 to three.
Doctors said A/H1N1 deaths occur among people
with obesity and other chronic diseases like diabetes and kidney failure.
Le Quoc Hung, head of the hospital’s department
for tropical diseases, said this was the start of the rainy season and
also the peak of the flu season so the appearance of the A/H1N1 flu was
understandable.
The recent return of the influenza virus in HCM
City has worried many people, but health experts insist that an epidemic is
unlikely.
They say if people get vaccinated, the chances
of them falling ill are low.
Head of HCM City Pasteur Institute Phan Trong
Lan said the number of A/H1N1 patients was higher than previous years because
of lower vaccination rates.
At present, the vaccination rate against
influenza was less than one percent of Vietnam’s population.
He said patients suffering from A/H1N1 flu and
seasonal flu would normally recover after a week.
However, he warned that pregnant women, infants
and young children under two years old and old people over 65 were among the
groups at elevated risks of complications arising from flu.
Complications could be fatal without timely
treatment, Lan said.
Doctor Truong Huu Khanh from HCM City Children’s
Hospital 1 said A/H1N1 flu was infectious but fatalities only happen to those
who had weak immune systems.
Tests showed that this is the old type of the
H1N1 virus that broke out worldwide in 2009 and vaccinations against the virus
are successful, according to Khanh.
It could only cause an epidemic if a new type
of virus appeared with a modified structure, he said.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
