Unusual and severe weather of the transitional season have made old people and children in northern and southern Vietnam ill, while many diseases have stricken people in the central region after floods.
Doctor Le Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Hanoi-based Central Children’s Hospital, said many children have been hospitalized since the northern region entered the autumn in early October.
He said his hospital received 1,000-1,5000 child patients a day on usual days, but in these days, it has received 1,800-2,200 patients a day, and 30-40 percent of them have to be hospitalized.
The number of children admitted to St. Paul and Bach Mai hospitals has also increased by 30-50 percent.
These children have suffered from high fever, respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, pneumonia, and allergies.
Not only children but also old people have become ill when the weather goes from hot to cold, most of them have got cough, asthma, and rheumatism.
Down south, dengue fever epidemic continues spreading throughout cities and provinces with Ho Chi Minh City being hardest hit.
Doctor Ha Manh Tuan, head of the Ho Chi Minh City-based Children’s Hospital 2, said over 5,300 children with dengue fever were treated at the hospital in the past nine months.
The number of dengue fever patients admitted to the hospital in September soared by nearly 30 percent over August and 50 percent over the same period of last year.
While the Children’s Hospital 1 received over 3,350 children with dengue fever from early this year. The hospital has currently received about 100 dengue fever patients a day.
The Tropical Disease Hospital has also received about 100 adults with dengue fever a day for treatment.
According to the city Health Department, the city received 500 patients per week from provinces in October, while the figure was 300 in September.
Nine patients died because they did not receive timely emergency aid.
In the central region, pink-eye, diarrhea, flu, pneumonia, skin and intestinal diseases have afflicted people due to pollution caused by recent floods.
A preliminary statistics showed that in Quang Binh Province’s Minh Hoa District, 166 residents have got skin diseases, 99 have had pink-eye, 67 have suffered from acute intestinal diseases, 29 have got diarrhea, and 75 have caught flu.
While Ha Tinh Province has seen 2,500 cases of pink-eye, 2,400 cases of skin diseases, and 118 cases of diarrhea within four days after the floods.
Hundreds of lakes, streams and rivers in the region are now polluted.
