Patients testing positive for porcine tapeworms do not need to undergo immediate medical treatment, the local media reported, citing Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of the Department of Food Safety under the Ministry of Health.

A view of the press conference held today, March 19, in the northern province of Bac Ninh

At a press conference in the northern province of Bac Ninh held by the Department of Food Safety today, March 19, on the widespread tapeworm infections among children in the province, Phong said blood testing is just one of multiple methods to diagnose the infection, and treatment methods should be adopted if children develop clinical symptoms of the infection.

Despite sharing the anxiety of local parents, he affirmed that it is not difficult to treat the disease and the medicines for it are not expensive as well.

He added that it is too early to affirm that food safety violations of Thanh Khuong Kindergarten in Thuan Thanh District of the province had triggered the spread of porcine tapeworms among children in the district.

Phong explained that if pork used in the kindergarten had been infected with tapeworms, the infection could not spread to human beings as the pork had been cooked. In addition, these children could be infected with tapeworms through drinking water.

He stressed the need to educate local people the habit of ensuring food safety and hygiene.

The Bac Ninh government should promptly provide accurate information on the case to avoid causing public concerns.

Responding to questions on Thanh Khuong Kindergarten’s failure to store food samples, Phong said the school had violated regulations on taking and storing food samples, as well as regulations on cooks, food origins and cooking equipment hygiene.

Tapeworm test results of Bac Ninh children normal: provincial Party chief

The results of porcine tapeworm tests conducted on thousands of children in the northern province of Bac Ninh were normal, around the proportion of children testing positive for tapeworms within the nation’s average rate of 11%, Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reported, citing Nguyen Nhan Chien, secretary of the provincial Party Committee.

Although recent days saw the largest ever number of children undergoing porcine tapeworm tests in Vietnam with hundreds of cases of the disease being uncovered, Chien, at a meeting on March 18, stated that this was not the time to assign blame to any individual or organization, as the local agencies are still investigating the case and have yet to draw any conclusions.

He also asked for an investigation into the authenticity of a video provided by local parents about pork used at Thanh Khuong Kindergarten in Thuan Thanh District, Bac Ninh Province, being infected with tapeworms.

In addition, the provincial Party chief assigned the competent agencies to promptly announce the final conclusions of the case to the public, adding that the province would handle the case strictly and impose heavy sanctions on violators.

On the same day, many parents in Bac Ninh Province continued to take their children to the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases and the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology in neighboring Hanoi City for porcine tapeworm tests.

Further, the Bac Ninh Department of Health coordinated with doctors from the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology to take blood samples from students at 19 kindergartens in Thuan Thanh District and sent them to the institute’s headquarters in Hanoi for testing.

The testing fees for these children and the treatment fees for those testing positive for porcine tapeworms will be funded by the province’s budget.

As of March 18, more than 2,000 children aged from one to 10 had undergone tapeworm tests, with 209 of them testing positive. However, the number is likely to increase further in the next few days as the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases and the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology have received new test requests.

According to Dr Tran Thi Hai Ninh, head of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases’ division of general planning, the proportion of children testing positive for tapeworms is 10%-15%.

Dr Nguyen Quang Thieu, deputy director of the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology, stated that most of the infected children were healthy and did not present clinical symptoms of the infection.

Although the cause for the high number of children in Bac Ninh Province testing positive for porcine tapeworms is unknown, experts agreed that it was unusual and urged the competent agencies to investigate thoroughly.

SGT