The number of patients with measles has been on the rise in HCM City as well as other southern provinces.

Measles outbreak in the southern region

Dr Huynh Thi Thuy Hoa from HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases said measles cases had been detected from January to August last year. However, since September, the number of patients has greatly increased. 

In December 2018, they received up to 266 patients. In some cases, two to three members of a family had measles at the same time. 36-year-old Le Hoang Son said his wife suddenly fell sick a week ago. They only thought it was just a common cold until their 10-year-old son also fell ill four days later.

According to Dr Truong Huu Khanh from Children's Hospital 1, most of their patients were in critical conditions. Four patients have to stay in the special care unit and one patient is only 25 days old. 

Since last December, the hospital has received 20-40 patients a day.

The Children's Hospital 2 is also treating 61 child patients. Dr Do Chau Viet said some patients had congenital heart diseases and chronic lung diseases which would worsen their conditions.

50% of the cases this year are adults including pregnant women. Measles is very dangerous to them and some have lost their babies. 

Failure to get a shot of measles and rubella vaccines before getting pregnant is deemed one of the causes for such a rise in measles cases.

Huynh Thi Hoa, head of the Department of Internal Medicine A at HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said the epidemic cycle of measles was four to five years. About 20% of the children are not vaccinated or do not respond to the vaccines every year. 

Several years later, a large outbreak often occurs when the number of unvaccinated people is high enough. In 2014, the hospital received a record number of 2,596 patients. Hoa expected the number of patients to rise in coming days.

"The disease will definitely return when the vaccination coverage is not good enough to create an immunisation barrier," Dr Truong Huu Khanh said.

He went on to say that people were diagnosed with measles all year round in the south and could worsen when there were rains and the weather is a bit colder. He advised everyone from children to adults to get vaccinated in time.

TTVH/Dtinews