HCMC – Hospitalizations of children having hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) in HCMC have soared, leaving the city at risk of an outbreak between October and November if prevention and control measures are not taken seriously, experts warned.
The city’s HFMD case count has neared 15,000, with 488 cases detected between September 19 and 25, up 16.7% versus the four-week-ago period, the HCMC Center for Disease Control (HCDC) reported.
Of them, Children’s Hospital 2 in District 1 received 688 HFMD outpatients and 39 inpatients from September 15 to 28.
The disease would not be problematic if disease prevention and control measures were strictly practiced; otherwise, an outbreak would occur in October and November, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Qui, deputy head of the Infectious Disease Department under Children’s Hospital 2.
As the vaccine for HFMD is not yet available, adults and children should wash their hands and clean toys often to curb the spread of the disease.
According to Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien, deputy director of Children’s Hospital HCMC in Binh Chanh District, children should be rushed to hospitals or health centers as soon as they show symptoms of the disease.
Adults should stay alert to the disease as children can catch it multiple times.
The disease could develop complications, such as encephalitis, meningitis, myocarditis and acute pulmonary edema, or even cause death.
