A/H1N1 flu patients are being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – A person with the
recently died after two days of treatment at the Cho Ray
Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, becoming the second fatality of swine flu at the
hospital and the third in the city.
The male patient, 46, was hospitalised with
severe respiratory failure and pneumonia. He was obese and in need of breathing
machine aids.
Le Quoc Hung, head of the hospital’s
department for tropical diseases, said it is currently treating seven A/H1N1 victims,
three of whom are in severe condition and need breathing machines.
From June 11, the hospital has received at
least 24 patients infected with the virus, two of whom have died, increasing
the total number of 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.
Hung 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
