Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan sent an urgent dispatch to chairpersons of people's committees in provinces and cities on the strengthening of the prevention and control of summer diseases in 2024.
In the dispatch, the Minister of Health requested localities to mobilize departments, agencies, and socio-political organizations to closely coordinate with the health sector to proactively implement disease prevention and control solutions in their localities, especially for infectious diseases that often occur during summer. In addition, inspection teams should be set up to supervise the work of disease prevention and control in areas.
Under the Minister of Health’s directive, departments of health and medical institutions in the area necessarily strengthen monitoring for early detection of cases of diseases, and outbreaks in the community and medical facilities. They should carry out quarantine, promptly and thoroughly handle outbreaks, prevent outbreaks in the community and increase the collection of samples for testing to identify the causative agents.
Moreover, departments of health and medical institutions ought to closely coordinate with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute to proactively assess risks, analyze the situation to promptly implement measures to handle outbreaks and organize vaccination campaigns to prevent diseases.
At the same time, departments of health and medical institutions promote regular vaccination for all people in the expanded immunization program to ensure safety and effectiveness while conducting make-up and catch-up vaccinations for those who have not been vaccinated or have not been fully vaccinated. Parents are encouraged to take their children to get all vaccinations fully and on time and encourage vaccination against diseases for pregnant women.
According to the Ministry of Health, the infectious disease surveillance system shows that some diseases circulating in the country such as dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease, and measles are on the rise, and there have also been sporadic cases of some vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. Meanwhile, hot and rainy summer is hitting the country while the demand for trade and tourism is increasing during the summer tourism season resulting in the risk of infectious diseases.
