Efforts scaled up to prevent winter-spring diseases

Hanoi (VNA) – The prevention and treatment of winter-spring diseases should be implemented effectively and synchronically, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said at a teleconference on January 4.

Tien asked medical establishments to soon detect infection cases to reduce the number of fatalities, while paying attention to bacterial contamination and cross-infection in hospitals.

At the same time, it is necessary to increase public awareness of preventive measures, the minister said.

Speaking at the conference, Director of the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department Tran Dac Phu said dangerous and newly-emerging diseases like avian influenza A/H7N7, Mers-Cov and bubonic plague are very likely to penetrate into Vietnam and break out if drastic preventive measures are not taken.

The cold weather and crowded festivals in the winter-spring seasons could facilitate the development of such diseases as avian influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, rubella, meningitis and diarrhoea, he said, warning that dengue fever is forecast to develop more complicatedly in 2018.

Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Health Ministry’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department, said his department has asked medical centres to provide training for health workers and planned to decentralise medical treatment of winter-spring diseases.

According to the Preventive Medicine Department, the number of measles cases dropped by 29.2 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year and no deaths caused by the disease were reported.

Meanwhile, 183,287 cases of dengue fever were reported in all 63 cities and provinces of the country, killing 30 people, and 105,953 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease were recorded in the year with one death.-VNA