Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has required hospitals and clinicsnationwide to take extra measures to curb outbreaks of hand-foot-mouthdisease (HFMD) as least as possible.
The efforts aim to reduce the number of fatalities from the disease, which has killed 18 people so far this year.
The Minister instructed health care facilities to promptly tackleremaining shortcomings and focus on training for doctors and nurses whohave been directly involved in providing treatment and care for HFMDpatients.
She noted that hospital directors should ensureadequate staffing by doctors and nurses, particularly at night when ahigh rate of fatalities was due to a lack of patient care.
Increasing information dissemination about the disease to raise publicawareness, particularly among mothers, was also essential, said Tien.
Local health clinics at localities should report to their People'sCommittees in case of a shortage of medicine and equipment to ensuresupplies meet demand for treatment, she added.
Inspectionon HFMD prevention and treatment at localities by health ministryofficials last month found that many localities still paid littleattention to disseminating related information about the disease,including its symptoms.
Meanwhile, some localities had tocope with poor health care facilities and a lack of equipment,particularly in southern An Giang and Dong Thap provinces. The twoprovinces suffered the worst rate of fatalities due to the disease, withfour deaths recorded in An Giang and two deaths in Dong Thap.
However, the minister admitted that HFMD was a serious disease withoutbreaks developing in a complicated and unusual way, causingdifficulties for treatment and diagnosis.
By the end ofMarch, 21,295 cases of HFMD were reported nationwide, according tostatistics released by the ministry's Preventive Medicine Department.
The number of cases rose by 9.1 percent against the same period lastyear, while the number of fatalities was three times higher than lastyear's figures-VNA
The efforts aim to reduce the number of fatalities from the disease, which has killed 18 people so far this year.
The Minister instructed health care facilities to promptly tackleremaining shortcomings and focus on training for doctors and nurses whohave been directly involved in providing treatment and care for HFMDpatients.
She noted that hospital directors should ensureadequate staffing by doctors and nurses, particularly at night when ahigh rate of fatalities was due to a lack of patient care.
Increasing information dissemination about the disease to raise publicawareness, particularly among mothers, was also essential, said Tien.
Local health clinics at localities should report to their People'sCommittees in case of a shortage of medicine and equipment to ensuresupplies meet demand for treatment, she added.
Inspectionon HFMD prevention and treatment at localities by health ministryofficials last month found that many localities still paid littleattention to disseminating related information about the disease,including its symptoms.
Meanwhile, some localities had tocope with poor health care facilities and a lack of equipment,particularly in southern An Giang and Dong Thap provinces. The twoprovinces suffered the worst rate of fatalities due to the disease, withfour deaths recorded in An Giang and two deaths in Dong Thap.
However, the minister admitted that HFMD was a serious disease withoutbreaks developing in a complicated and unusual way, causingdifficulties for treatment and diagnosis.
By the end ofMarch, 21,295 cases of HFMD were reported nationwide, according tostatistics released by the ministry's Preventive Medicine Department.
The number of cases rose by 9.1 percent against the same period lastyear, while the number of fatalities was three times higher than lastyear's figures-VNA
