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From the beginning of the year to now, Hanoi has recorded 548 chickenpox cases, soaring significantly over the same period of last year when the city reported only four cases.
Through surveillance, chickenpox patients were found in 18 out of 30 districts of Hanoi, with children in kindergartens and primary schools getting infected, accounting for more than 70 percent of the cases.
According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, chickenpox (also known as varicella) is an acute and high contagious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) which is transmitted from person to person by directly touching the blisters, saliva or mucus of an infected person.
The first sign is usually a general feeling of fever, fatigue, headache, body aches, runny nose and sore throat within five days before the rash of red, itchy spots that turn into fluid-filled blisters.
The disease lasts seven to ten days.
In order to actively prevent the disease, the Ministry of Health recommends that people limit contact with illness people with the above-mentioned symptoms to prevent infection, people infected with chickenpox should stay at home for seven to ten days since the outbreak, regularly wash their hands with soap and clean up houses and schools with disinfectants. Notably, newborn babies from the age of 12 months are recommended to routinely receive doses of the chickenpox vaccine.
