Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has specifically asked ministries, agencies and provinces throughout the country to strengthen prevention of bird-flu, hand-foot-mouth disease and dengue fever.
As per the Prime Minister’s directive, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been instructed to ask localities to closely monitor diseases that are spreading through water fowl and also early detect outbreaks of bird flu and begin preventive measures immediately. They should also inform the health sector to implement measures to curb any infectious transmission to humans.
The Ministry of Education and Training has been asked to carry out prevention tests for bird flu, hand-foot-mouth disease and dengue fever in schools as well as teach students about the diseases and closely coordinate with the health sector in their healthcare mission.
The Ministry of Health has been asked to closely monitor diseases in localities and keep handy chemicals and equipment for treatment and control of sudden outbreaks.
On September 6, the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health announced that the country has so far recorded more than 77,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease with 41 fatalities. Apart from this, in August alone, the country reported more than 11,300 patients suffering from the disease with six succumbing to it.
Last year, the hand-foot-mouth disease had peaked in May and June, but this year the disease has exploded in September when students are gearing to enter the new academic year. Accordingly the ministry frets of widespread infection of the disease, especially among toddlers in pre-schools.
The ministry has warned provincial and municipal leaders and schools to enhance supervision and personal hygiene to curb and minimize infection cases and deaths.
