VietNamNet Bridge - People are dying from respiratory and cardiovascular failures during the current cold snap and those who try to warm their rooms with coal-fired cookers are at risk of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

 
Medical experts said people with health problems should avoid going out in severe cold and coal-fire cookers should only be used when windows and doors were half open.

Vu Ngoc Lan, head of the Nghe An Hospital's Recuperation Ward, said a Vinh City woman was under intensive care and a man was recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning after they lost consciousness while using a coal-fired cooker to warm their house.

Another man and his 17-year-old daughter in the central province of Quang Tri died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning while using a coal-fired cooker to provide warmth in a closed room.

Lan said carbon monoxide was a killer. "If households do not have modern equipment to warm their homes, they can use charcoal but remember to half-open their windows for ventilation."

Meanwhile in Hanoi, the National Burns Hospital has received a one-month-old for serious burns on his face as his mother felt dizzy from the carbon monoxide and dropped him on to the cooker.

The baby is recovering but is in need of a skin graft.

Doctors also advised residents to prevent sudden deaths caused by colds.

Last Monday a 39-year-old man died from respiratory failure in Lang Son Hospital when he was taken to after catching a cold on a day where the temperature dropped to 4 degrees Celsius.

Another three-year-old girl from Hanoi's Hoang Mai District also died last Saturday after catching a cold while traveling to her hometown in the northern province of Bac Giang.

Head of the Saint Paul Hospital's Recuperation Ward Nguyen Duc Hien said that in the last two weeks the hospital had checked 50-80 people a day for coronary problems and high blood pressure.

"People with cardiovascular and blood pressure problems can easily suffer a sudden death," he said. "They should avoid going out in severe cold."

Four people have died in the central province of Quang Nam from cold weather as a fresh cold wave began hitting the central region Monday.

The four dead victims are an 80-year-old man, a two-month-old child and a 31-year-old woman and her newborn baby.

The prolonged cold snap in northern provinces has killed more than 8,000 buffaloes and cows.

The National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Center has sent warnings to officials in the country's northern mountainous areas, where frost is likely to form and temperatures may fall below 7 degrees Celsius.

In a message sent to authorities in northern localities last Sunday, the Center has said task forces would be sent by municipal and provincial People's Committees to work with affected regions and help store, feed and keep animals warm.