VietNamNet Bridge –Preventive medicine centres have done a poor job of preventing the outbreak of dengue fever and hand-foot-mouth disease in children in HCM City, according to city officials.

Children with dengue fever are treated at Pediatric Hospital No 1 in HCM City. Poor disease prevention has been blamed for the outbreak. (Photo: VNS)

Last month, the city's hospitals treated nearly 900 children who had contracted dengue fever.

Le Truong Giang, deputy head of HCM City's Department of Health, said preventive medicine centres must do more to control the outbreak of the disease.

HCM City Pediatric Hospital 2 has hospitalised more than 80 children with the disease. Many of them were in serious condition because they were admitted too late.

The city's Pediatric Hospital 1 was also treating at least 50 children infected with dengue fever.

Doctor Le Bich Lien, deputy director of HCM City Pediatric Hospital and head of the hospital's dengue fever department, said the number of children with dengue fever had doubled compared to the previous month.

Of the 100 children rushed to the hospital due to the disease, 20 had a high fever, Lien added.

The HCM City Hospital of Tropical Diseases was also treating more than 20 children with dengue fever.

Since early this year, the hospital has treated more than 500 adults with the disease.

Nguyen Dac Tho, director of HCM City Preventive Medicine Centre, said the outbreak had become much worse, even though the dengue-fever season was only beginning.

The number of infected cases since early this year doubled compared with the same period last year.

According to the city's Department of Health, the outbreak was partly due to the poor medicine preventive tasks at grassroots-level health agencies.

All 322 wards and communes in the city had dengue-fever patients.

At a recent meeting, Giang blamed localities for their neglect in preventing the dengue-fever outbreak.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News