This figure was reported led by Head of the Preventive Medicine Department Tran Dac Phu and the municipal Department of Health yesterday.
Head of the city’s Department of Preventive Medicine’s Infectious ward Dr. Le Hong Nga said at the meeting on measles and vaccination between the Ministry of Health’s delegation that of 1,989 measles cases, 95 percent of them had not been vaccinated and most of patients are below ten years old while a surge in measles adults in the age of 26-34 is being recorded.
Through the surveys by the Health Ministry, the rate of vaccination against measles in kindergarten always reaches over 95 percent; however, just around 60 percent of infants receive the second shot of vaccine at 18 months old.
Parents forget the second measles shot because they have lost medical record books, or wait for paid vaccine or not get access to information at local clinics, said Dr. Nga.
Dr. Phu said presently, the disease is developing complicatedly; accordingly, hospitals must have plan to cope with the disease if outbreaks of measles occurs. Moreover, infirmaries must prevent cross- infection between patients or between patients to medical workers as well as provide training to medical workers.
Before, the delegation had paid visits to medical clinic in Tan Tao A Ward in Binh Tan District, the Tropical Disease Hospital and the Children Hospital No.1.
Since the beginning, the Tropical Disease Hospital has admitted 1,025 outpatients and 645 inpatients meanwhile the Children Hospital No.1 is treated 30 measles kids with many of them suffering pneumonia as complications.