For the first time in the country doctors at Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital have managed to save the life of an infant suffering from encephalitis caused by measles.
Dr Nguyen Tien Dung, head of pediatrics at the hospital, said May 20 that nine-month-old Nguyen Truong Nam of the northern province of Bac Ninh had been brought to the hospital a month earlier in a coma and suffering from breathing failure and convulsions.
His oxygen saturation was below 90 percent against a normal minimum of 95 percent.
Doctors found he had encephalitis as a result of measles, put him on a breathing machine, and gave him drugs for the convulsive fits.
After struggling for a whole month, doctors managed to save the child’s life.
Nam is now in stable condition.
Dung, saying it was a first in the country, urged doctors to immediately think about encephalitic complications if children with measles have high fever and convulsive fits.
