Binh Phuoc announces end to diphtheria outbreak

Health workers delivered medicine to prevent diphtheria for people in Dong Phu district. Binh Phuoc province. (Photo: VNA)

Binh Phuoc (VNA) – Local authorities in southern Binh Phuoc province announced on November 1 that the province had eliminated an outbreak of diphtheria on the district-level. 

On June 22, the outbreak was first reported in Thuan Loi and Thuan Phu communes of Dong Phu district. The disease claimed three lives, two in Thuan Loi and the other in Thuan Phu. 

Binh Phuoc province declared a district-level diphtheria outbreak in July 2016. Up to 47 people were hospitalised with the disease. 

The provincial Health Department worked with the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City and the city-based Hospital for Tropical Diseases to conduct tests, sterilisation and assess treatment and prevention options 

The last patient was discharged from hospital on August 29 and prevention activities were launched. No new cases have been found in the province. 

Local authorities assigned the Health Department to monitor the situation and report to the provincial People’s Committee. 

Health agencies said that this was the first outbreak of diphtheria in the province, with the infected cases mainly from 6 to 26-years-old. 

The disease occurs when diphtheria bacteria is transmitted to humans through respiration, leading to fever, sore throat, heavy coughing and headache.-VNA