VietNamNet Bridge – The central province of Ninh Thuan has become the first in Vietnam to officially declare hand-foot-mouth disease an epidemic.
The announcement came on November 7, following reports that the disease has spread to 16 communes and wards in six of towns and districts in Ninh Thuan.

So far this year 417 people had contracted the disease, 24 times higher than in the same period last year, and three of them had died. Most of the patients were under three years old, said Phan Thi Lai, deputy director of the provincial Department of Health.

Lai said that despite preventative measures, the rapid spread of the disease outgrew initial evaluation and handling capacity since its outbreak in July.

Doctor Nguyen Nhi Linh, from the Ninh Thuan Preventive Health Center, said that since there is no vaccine against the disease, preventive measures were very important to prevent its spread.

The Ninh Thuan health agencies called on local residents to keep their surroundings hygienic and wash their hands regularly, especially the hands of children and those who take care of or feed them.

The provincial government has ordered local heath facilities to use all possible resources to treat patients effectively and separate them from others to curb the spread of the disease, and asked all local authorities to closely coordinate with hospitals and other health agencies to contain the disease.

Since the beginning of the year, hand-foot-mouth disease has occurred in provinces nation-wide with around 78,000 cases reported.

Earlier, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that local governments have the power to declare the hand-foot-mouth epidemic but “it is not worse enough to declare the epidemic.”

Some provinces, for example the central province of Quang Ngai, had high and quickly increasing number of hand-foot-mouth patients. The Nha Trang Pasteur Institute asked the province to declare the epidemic but Quang Ngai authorities refused because “it can still control the situation.”

Thanh Ngoc