VietNamNet Bridge – Ward-level medical centres in HCM City are no longer providing a disinfectant meant for use against the hand - foot - mouth disease for free to residents but are selling them, a newspaper has reported.

Nguoi lao dong (The Labourer) said while the centres were selling French-made Surfanios on instructions from the city Preventive Health Centre, the Department of Health said it knew nothing and was in fact "surprised" to hear about this.

Predictably, many people are indignant.

A resident of District 8 said when he went to the ward's medical centre to obtain the health insurance card for his son, employees asked him to buy a 20ml pack of Surfanios which is used as a cleaning agent.

"The centre used to give me a pack of white powder for free to prevent diseases whenever I have my son vaccinated here. Why do I have to pay now?"

Nguoi lao dong went around districts 7 and 8 to study the situation, and found that medical centres had been selling the chemical for more than two weeks.

The Ward 5 medical station in District 8 also has in store around 30kg of Cloramin B, the disinfectant that was handed out for free earlier.

Dr Nguyen Le Dang, director of the District 7 Preventive Health Centre, said the programme was being carried out under the direction of the city Preventive Health Centre.

Health centres in many other districts have also been selling Surfanios.

A spokesperson for the Preventive Health Centre, without saying why Surfanios was not handed out free, said merely it was a new programme to intensify preventive efforts against the disease.

It was a programme the health sector had to implement sooner or later, and better chemicals than Surfanios would be introduced soon, he said.

Nguyen Tan Binh, deputy head of the Department of Health said selling the chemical was not his department's policy.

"We will clarify the matter soon," he promised.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News