The Ministry of Health has warned about possible outbreaks of diseases in summer and the threat of diseases entering the country from outside.
Speaking to the media in Hanoi May 8, Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine, said outbreaks of hand-foot-mouth have increased dramatically in some southern provinces.
The number of cases increased by 34.4 percent in Ba Ria- Vung Tau Province, 28.9 percent in Ho Chi Minh City, and 15.5 percent in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau.
He blamed it on a virulent strain of the EV71 enterovirus.
More than 8,000 cases of dengue fever have been reported across the country in the last five months.
One person each died of the disease in HCMC and the southern provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, and Ca Mau.
The World Health Organization has issued a warning against the recurrence of polio, and the ministry has told the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute, preventive medicine departments and clinics to keep watch against the entry of the disease into Vietnam.
