HCMC – Two people in the Central Highlands province of Daklak and one in Gia Lai Province have tested positive for diphtheria, raising the total number of infected patients in the Central Highlands region to 75.
The two cases in Daklak Province are male and come from the H’Mong minority ethnic group, according to the provincial Department of Health. They are among the members of a family.
After one of the two, aged 26, began showing symptoms of fever, sore throat and tiredness on July 8, he visited M’Drak District’s Healthcare Center for a medical examination on July 10 and was told to go to the hospital.
Daklak Province’s Center for Diseases Control took his sample and sent it to the Central Highlands Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing. The test results showed that he had contracted the disease.
Meanwhile, the other person was also infected with the disease as he was taking care of the former. The two are now being treated at the General Hospital of the Central Highlands region.
Following the two new cases detected, Hamlet 7 in M’Dak District’s Cu Kroa Commune, where the two reside, was immediately isolated, while seven people who came into close contact with the two patients have had their samples taken for testing.
The other case reported in Gia Lai Province, a three-year-old girl, lives in Dak Doa District’s Dak Smei Commune.
Mai Xuan Hai, director of the Gia Lai Department of Health, told VnExpress that the competent agencies quickly quarantined the patient and isolated the region where she lives.
After nearly one month, Dak Nong, Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Daklak provinces in the Central Highlands have reported a total of 75 cases of diphtheria, including three fatalities.
