Weather shifts could trigger disease outbreaks

Abrupt weather changes this year have triggered several disease outbreaks, according to health experts.
 
Weather shifts could trigger disease outbreaks ảnh 1A child with dengue fever is treated at the HCM City Paediatrics Hospital No.1. (Photo: VNA)
HCMCity, (VNA) - Abrupt weather changes this year have triggeredseveral disease outbreaks, according to health experts.

TheHCM City Preventive Health Centre has warned that the unseasonable rains in thecity since the Lunar New Year could see more people hospitalised with denguefever; hand, foot, and mouth; respiratory ailments; and diarrhoea.

DrNguyen Tri Dung, the centre’s head, said people should take preventive measureslike destroying mosquitoes and larvae and maintaining personal hygiene.

Statisticsreleased by the Paediatrics Hospital 2’s infectious diseases ward on February 6showed that 22 dengue patients are receiving treatment, double the numbercompared to the same period last year.

Ofthem, four are in the serious condition, including a child who is on aventilator.

Accordingto Dr Le Tien Dung of the University Medical Centre, when the weather changessuddenly, viral fever and pneumonia often break out, with children, seniors andpeople with low immunity especially at risk.

TranMinh Dien, deputy head of the National Hospital of Paediatrics in Hanoi, told TuoiTre (Youth) newspaper that the weather this year had been “strange.”

Normallyafter Tet the weather in the north is humid, he said, pointing out that thisyear temperatures had been quite high at night and low in the morning."The difference in temperature is high, leading to increased risk ofrespiratory diseases," he said.

OnFebruary 6 his hospital admitted 1,300 patients, many of them with respiratorydiseases, he said.

DrNguyen Thanh Nam, head of the paediatrics ward at another Hanoi hospital, Bach Mai,said on February 6 the ward was filled with children, half of them withrespiratory ailments.

Therewere also children with chickenpox, which often breaks out during the transitionfrom winter to spring, he said.

TheHanoi Preventive Health Centre warned that mumps, measles, rubella and otherdiseases could break out.

Namadvised that parents should raise resistance for their children by feeding themsufficient nutrition, keeping them warm and in the hygiene condition in orderto prevent from infecting diseases via respiratory tract.

Theyalso should bring their children to health facilities to get vaccines againstchickenpox, mumps, measles and others.-VNA
VNA

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