Having been treated at the Infectious Disease Department for six days, N.N.T, 13, from district 7, still had bruises on his two arms which showed a blood concentration level due to dengue 'shock'.

T’s mother told VietNamNet that one week ago, she received a call from the boy’s teacher who said T had a fever and was brought to a private hospital for examination, where the doctor prescribed drugs to treat sore throat. 

However, the drugs could not help and the boy continued to have a high temperature and diarrhea. She brought him to a district hospital, where he received first aid and was forwarded to the Children’s Hospital No 2 in a state of dengue shock.

N.V, a 4-year-old girl, was brought to the Children’s Hospital No 2 on the fourth day of dengue infection. Prior to that, she took medicine prescribed by a doctor at a private hospital to treat pharyngitis, but her situation did not improve. As she felt serious fatigue and vomited, she needed emergency action. 

When she arrived at the Children’s Hospital No 2, she was taken to the emergency department in a state of dengue shock, with polymembrane effusion, and respiratory failure. She needed CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure).

Tran Ngoc Luu, a specialist level-1 doctor, said the number of dengue patients has increased by 50 percent compared with two weeks ago, with 15-20 inpatients in his department.

Serious cases 

The number of serious dengue cases is also on the increase. Many patients need a blood transfusion. Just within one week, the hospital received four cases of dengue shock.

Children’s Hospital No 1 is treating 30 child inpatients. Last month, 130 dengue infected children were hospitalized. Of these, eight had complications and needed intensive treatment. Many children were hospitalized with respiratory failure, severe liver damage due to dengue shock, and needed intubation and ventilation.

Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan of Children’s Hospital No 1 said dengue fever can be dangerous and there is no cure for it. The problem is that the symptoms can be easily mistaken with other diseases such as pharyngitis, hand, foot and mouth disease, or viral infections.

HCDC (Center for Disease Control of HCM City) reported that in the 39th week, the city recorded 370 cases of dengue fever, an increase of 19.8 percent compared to the average level of the previous four weeks. The total number of cases had reached 7,739 cases by the 39th week. 

Bach Duong