Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) –
Communicable diseases from around the world could enter Vietnam and spread
easily if the country does not improve prevention and control, said Tran Dac Phu,
Director of the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Medicine Department.
The health official attended a February 15 meeting on preventive medicine for
northern provinces, and warned that international trade, tourism and labour
exchange, in addition to increased urbanisation, climate change and drug
resistance exposed a greater number of people to communicable diseases.
Phu said that Vietnam is still seeing cases of vaccine-preventable diseases,
mostly because of the modest vaccination rate in some localities, or poor
environmental and personal hygiene.
He said that this year, the health sector will continue strengthening regular
health monitoring at border gates and health centres in order to better detect
diseases, report them promptly, and take action before a disease has the chance
to spread in Vietnam.
Diseases like flu, dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth disease, Japanese encephalitis
or Zika will be monitored closely.
The Director of the Preventive Medicine Department also said that this year,
the Health Ministry planned to improve Emergency Operations Centres (EOC) at
major hospitals and Pasteur institutes. Additional EOCs will be built in
provinces nationwide. The centres are expected to connect the health ministry
to domestic and international partners in response to public health emergencies
of international concern, preventing them from spreading.
The ministry this year will carry out a project on increasing the capacity of
communicable disease testing.
It is also taking measures to increase the vaccination rate to at least 95
percent at districts and 90 percent at wards/communes.
An official from the Health Ministry’s Medical Treatment Department Nguyen Duc
Tien said that the department is taking actions to reduce deaths caused by
.
For example, people with dengue fever are sent to hospitals’ departments of
Communicable Disease, Pediatrics or Internal Medicine.
Improper treatment and unsafe transfers from hospital to hospital could be
reported, and health officers at higher levels would provide feedback with proper
instructions.
Tien said that this year, the ministry continues boosting its monitoring and
support to hospitals, especially private ones in treating dengue fever in the
southern region.
Every hospital in the south was required to set a group specialising in dengue
fever.
According to the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Medicine Department, nearly
11,880 cases of dengue fever were reported in Vietnam last year, resulting in
36 deaths. The number of cases was 19 percent higher than that of 2015, but the
number of deaths reduced from 54.
Last year also saw more than 45,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease, causing
one death. The number of cases was a reduction of 19.3 percent compared with
2015. The number of deaths reduced from six. The department warns that the
period from March to May is usually the peak time for hand-foot-mouth disease.
In the year so far, 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in 57 cities
and provinces nationwide.
219 cases of the Zika virus were in Vietnam last year and 13 cases this year.
The majority of cases were reported in HCM City.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
