Hanoi’s Department of Health is intensifying measures to prevent Japanese encephalitis.

Medical preventive units are to strengthen inspection efforts at hospitals and in the community to promptly detect cases for timely treatment.

The health sector is also responsible for raising public awareness of outbreak prevention and encouraging families to vaccinate their children on the recommended schedule.

It will also open training courses for health workers to quickly identify symptoms of the disease.

The city’s health department advised that maintaining environmental hygiene and receiving prompt and sufficient vaccinations are effective measures to prevent the disease.

Children are recommended to receive three doses of the vaccine: the first when they are one-year-old, the second one or two weeks after that, and the third one year after the first. For maintenance, children should receive booster vaccinations once every three or four years until they reach 15 years old.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Hoang Duc Hanh, Japanese encephalitis is a pernicious communicable disease caused by mosquito bites.

The disease spreads around the year, especially in summer. Children under 15 years old are especially susceptible to the virus, particularly those who have not been vaccinated, he stressed.

In the first five months of this year, Hanoi recorded nine cases but no fatalities.-VNA