VietNamNet Bridge – The number of hospitalised child patients with respiratory infections has risen to a record high at two paediatric hospitals in HCM City as the diseases reached a seasonal peak from late September through December.

A doctor examines in-patients with respiratory diseases at the HCM City Paediatric Hospital No.1’s Respiratory Department. Photo: VNS

Between 400 and 510 children have been admitted to Paediatric Hospital No.1 each day in the last few days, according to Tran Anh Tuan, head of the hospital’s Respiratory Department.

Five to six patients have had to share one bed as the department has only 100 beds.

Many parents have to stay with their children in the corridors of the hospital.

Nearly 60 per cent of in-patients live in other cities and provinces where local residents do not trust the quality of health services and rush to HCM City for treatment of respiratory diseases.

Paediatric Hospital No. 2 is also overloaded with 500-600 hospitalised patients with respiratory infections, according to Trinh Huu Tung, deputy director of the hospital.

The rise in the number of children with respiratory diseases would continue until December, doctors said.

Around 3,000 children each day had health examinations at the National Paediatric Hospital in Ha Noi recently, with respiratory diseases accounting for 35 per cent, said Le Thi Hong Hanh, deputy head of the hospital’s Respiratory Department.

“The large differences in temperature between day and night has badly affected the health resistance of children,” Hanh said.

Bach Mai Hospital’s Paediatric Department also reported a surge in the number of hospitalised children with respiratory infections in the past few days.

Two-thirds of children having health check-ups at the department were diagnosed with respiratory diseases.

Source: VNS