The National Children Hospital in Hanoi was crowded with patients on January 29. No chair in front of doctor’s room was available. Hospital Deputy Head Professor Tran Minh Dien said that during three weeks, the hospital has admitted over 1,000 kids and 300 of them were hospitalized.
Because large numbers of kids have fallen ill, the hospital classified them into different levels for treatment and cross-infection prevention. Patients were divided into three groups; one group of children had to hospitalized immediately for treatment while some will be treated in clinics in districts and others will receive treatment at home.
Similarly, Saint Paul, Dong Da, Thanh Nhan, Ha Dong hospitals received lots of flu patients lately. Worse, the National Tropical Disease Hospital reported cases of flu A/H1N1 including some with severe complications.
According to the Preventive Medicine Department, flu usually occurs in spring-winter season and directly transmits from ill people to healthy people while talking and sneezing.
As per the World health Organization, around 5-10 percent of adults and 30 percent of kids are infected with flu including 3-5 million serious cases. The Southeast Asian country reports 1-1.8 million cases of flu annually mostly infected by virus A(H3N2), A(H1N1) and flu type B.
Doctors noted though it is normal ailment which occurs year –round, seasonal flu threatens people’s health condition. People who have the flu often experience these symptoms such as fever or feeling feverish/chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches and fatigue (tiredness).
Kids, elderly people and people with chronic diseases of heart, lung, blood shortage will easily have complication and even death.
Therefore, the Ministry of Health warned people to apply good personal hygiene, cover their mouth when sneezing, wash their hand with soap, vaccination and go to nearby clinic if they experience above-mentioned symptoms to receive timely treatment.
To take initiative in supervise the virus strain in the country, the Ministry has implemented monitoring system across the country and boost testing in Flu Center located in the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi and Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City.
