Prevent strokes since curing is difficult: doctors

On a recent Saturday morning in the meeting room of Tâm Đức Heart Hospital in District 7, HCM City, a seminar was held on “Atrial fibrillation effective management: the role of new generation anticoagulants in preventing stroke in atrial fibrillation patient”.

It was a unique event in the fact that all participants were heart disease patients or people with an elevated risk of stroke.

The seminar disseminated useful information as doctors discussed what causes atrial fibrillation (AF), how to control it and what new generation anti-coagulants are available to treat atrial fibrillation.

The seminar has been a regular activity organised by Tâm Đức Hospital in recent years for its stroke patients club.

Dr Tôn Thất Minh, the hospital’s director, said the incidence of stroke is increasing globally and in Việt Nam due to modern habits like smoking and eating fast food and work-related stress.

Yet people barely know about it, he said.

“They know a stroke is dangerous since it could cause death. Many do not know how to protect themselves from the disease, how a stroke will seriously affect their lives or what to do when a family member suffers a stroke.”

A stroke will impact both the patient and their families, he said.

It was for this reason that the hospital, with sponsorship by Bayer Vietnam, set up the club for stroke patients to share knowledge and experiences about the disease, how to prevent it and cure it, how to take care of stroke patients, and how to use medicines correctly.

The club has achieved useful results.

Minh told Việt Nam News: “Patients’ knowledge has significantly improved compared to two years ago. They know a lot about the disease and some of them can talk about it like a doctor.”

Since in the case of stroke it is better to prevent than cure, providing knowledge about it is critical, he said.

Trịnh Khắc Nhơn, 58, of District 3 told Việt Nam News that two years after joining the stroke patients club in Tâm Đức Hosptial he has acquired a lot of knowledge.

Before joining the club he would often seek information on social networks or from people.

“There are many sources of news about medicines and methods to treat heart diseases and stroke. But after joining the club I have discovered all that information is not correct.”

He has been taught about new generation medicines and how to use them.

He also said he has passed on to relatives and friends the information he has acquired.

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hoa, 48, of District 1 is another member of the Tâm Đức Heart Hospital’s stroke patients club. She regularly goes to the club and, thanks to information acquired there, can take care not only of herself but also her mother in the correct way.

Such a club has been set up not only at Tâm Đức Hospital but also many other hospitals like Chợ Rẫy and Thủ Đức Hospital, and they have become popular among patients and their families.

A stroke club is useful not just for patients and their relatives since when someone gets a stroke, their whole family is impacted.

At a seminar Bayer organised in Singapore on stroke, a stroke victim, Anthony Quek, surprised attendees by saying the lives of the five other people in his family too had been affected after he had the stroke.

He recalled the difficult early days, saying he couldn’t walk or take a bath by himself, and needed his family’s support for everything. Normal life had ceased to exist, and the five other members in his family had to serve him.

Dr N Venketasubramanian Ramani of Raffles Hospital in Singapore said: “A stroke occurs when the blood supply to any part of the brain is blocked, which in turn cuts off the oxygen supply essential to the functioning and survival of brain cells. If it is not treated early enough, a stroke can damage the brain, which may leave it unable to function as it did previously.”

A stroke is a medical emergency that can have serious consequences for both patients and their families and friends, he warned.

At a seminar held to discuss stroke prevention for non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients organised late last week by the Vietnam Cardiology Association and sponsored by Bayer, Dr Nguyễn Lân Việt, the president of the association said: “To achieve better stroke prevention, especially in high-risk AF patients such as those who had a stroke, kidney failure, etc, patients need to strictly adhere to the treatment regimen regarding the use of anti-coagulants prescribed by doctors and informing doctors in time about disease conditions.”

But while underlining the dangers of strokes, doctors also assured that they are completely preventable.

“FAST” is an acronym that needs to be learnt by heart, they said.

FAST refers to Face, Act, Speak and Time: When you smile, is one side droopy? When you raise your arms, is one side weak? When speaking simple sentences, do you slur or find you are unable to do it? The doctors said anyone having any of these symptoms needs to be rushed to hospital, the last important factor being “Time”.

Remember to take the patient to a hospital as soon as possible since 60 minutes is considered the “golden hour” for treating a stroke. Within 60 minutes is the best time for cells to recover, the doctors said. 

PM approves development plan for resettlement areas

Part of a resettlement area in northern Sơn La province. 

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has approved a socio-economic development plan for resettlement areas following the construction of the Sơn La hydropower plant.

The plan will be implemented between 2018 and 2025 in 82 communes in Sơn La, Điện Biên and Lai Châu provinces.

Ahead of the plant’s construction, as many as 21,820 households, comprising 93,201 people, in these provinces were relocated.

The Sơn La hydropower plant is one of the key national projects to supply electricity for socio-economic development, industrialisation and modernisation. It will also play a significant role in preventing floods during the rainy season and providing water in the dry season to residents in the country’s north-west region.

The development plan aims to promote agricultural production, increase the rate of trained rural workers and improve the spiritual and material life of people after sustainable resettlement.

It targets to increase the per capita income of the local people by two folds by 2020 from 2014 and reduce the rate of poor households to below 10 per cent by 2020. The per capita income is expected to increase by three folds by 2025 and the number of poor households by that year is expected to reduce to zero, according to the plan.

The rate of households using safe water is expected to increase to 90 per cent by 2020 and to 100 per cent by 2025.

The plan also aims to train and change the jobs of more than 47,000 rural workers by 2020.

It will focus on upgrading and building infrastructure in the resettled areas in Sơn La, Điện Biên and Lai Châu as well as stabilise the living conditions and production of 500 households in Quỳnh Nhai and Mường La districts in Sơn La province who were affected due to a shortage of land or by landslides and flash floods.

The Sơn La hydropower plant, which became operational in 2013, has six generators and a designed capacity of 2,400MW. It supplies an average of 10.2 billion kWh per year to the national grid.

Thái Nguyên warns about rising streptococcus suis infection cases

Thái Nguyên Central Hospital has raised a warning over rising streptococcus suis infections, after two fatalities were reported within less than a week of each other.– Photo baogiaothong.vn

Thái Nguyên Central Hospital has raised a warning over rising streptococcus suis infections, after two fatalities were reported within less than a week of each other.

Dr Lê Hùng Vương, head of the hospital’s Intensive Care and Anti-poison Department said that at least two patients died of streptococcus suis infection after eating unhygienic meat.

Ma Đình Du, 34, was hospitalised after cooking and eating meat from a dead goat on May 27. He suffered from vomiting, severe stomache ache and breathing difficulties. He died one day later.

La Văn Hào, 49, was in the same condition after being hospitalised on May 31. The patient’s family said they had no idea what kind of food he had eaten previously.

Hùng warned that streptococcus suis infection is on the rise due to humid and hot weather. People should not eat raw meat, meat from ill or dead animals and blood soup, to protect themselves from being infected. 

Đồng Nai to fund VNĐ10 billion to help fish farmers

Local authorities said that a natural disaster caused the mass fish deaths on the La Ngà River in Đồng Nai Province on May 20. 

Đồng Nai Province plans to offer VNĐ10 billion (US$438,115) to fish farmers affected by mass fish deaths on the La Ngà River caused by a natural disaster two weeks ago.

The province’s People’s Committee said it was providing assistance under a decree which calls for aid for farmers in case of losses caused by natural disasters and epidemics.

More than 1,500 tonnes of dead fish were found on the La Ngà River in the province’s Định Quán District on May 20. Many fish have continued to die.

Most of the dead fish belonged to farmers in the district’s La Ngà and Phú Ngọc communes. Most were lăng fish (hamibagrus), diêu hồng fish (read tilapia) and chép fish (carp).

Huỳnh Thành Vinh, director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said an investigation was launched immediately after the incident.

Samples of river water and dead fish were collected for tests, while agencies inspected suspicious waste discharged from businesses located upstream from where the deaths occurred.

Based on test results, scientists at the HCM City-based Research Institute for Aquaculture No 2 and the Centre for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis said the losses were caused by discharged waste water from businesses.

Analysis showed that the decline of dissolved oxygen content caused the fish to die.

The concentration of dissolved oxygen in the river water was between 2.6 mg/l to 3.2 mg/l, but the required ratio was 4 mg/l.

The test also found an unusual level of NH4 (Ammonia), 5.6-11 times higher than normal, while NO2 (Nitrite) was 10-20 times higher than the allowable levels for fish farming.

A heavy rainfall prior to the incident possibly carried a large volume of water polluted with garbage and compounds from upstream. In combination with NH4 and NO2, this also contributed to the fish deaths.  

In addition, the high density of fish and the narrow distance between cages reduced the volume of oxygen in the living environment of the fish, the local authorities said. 

Emergency centre lacks infrastructure and personnel

Due to the lack of both infrastructure and personnel, Hà Nội’s emergency centre is able to serve only seven out of every 100 calls. 

Hà Nội’s 115 emergency department under the municipal Department of Health currently has 21 ambulances which are able to serve only seven out of every 100 calls, according to the centre.

The low response rate is blamed on lack of budget.

There are 22 ambulances but one has broke down waiting to be scrapped, Nguyễn Thành, Hà Nội’s 115 centre’s director said.

Five medical emergency stations are placed citywide in charge of saving people. One is the headquarter station at 11 Phan Chu Trinh Street in the city centre. Four others are in the districts of Thanh Trì, Long Biên and Hà Đông.

“According to World Health Organisation, there needs to be 15 medical emergency teams to serve one million people. Hà Nội (with the population of nearly 10 million) is in need of 150 taskforces,” Thành said.

“We have 14 emergency teams working every day and we are unable to provide the service to outlying districts of expanded Hà Nội area because they are too far away,” he added.

However, the problem causing the biggest headache persists in personnel shortage.

Thành said since 2015, five doctors and ten nurses asked to leave. Two doctors moved to other facilities.

The city now has 188 staff including 28 doctors, 25 nurse practitioners, 63 nurses, six pharmacists and 48 ambulance drivers.

“28 doctors is not enough. Literally 42 taskforces need 42 doctors,” he said.

Medical staff on the mission also have to suffer from attacks from relatives of patients.

“Some encounter drug addicts. Right after seeing our staff, they take out weapons. In some other cases, at the accident sites, relatives of the victims told us ‘We don’t need you’,” Thành said.

He added that many doctors of the centre have not been granted a work permit. The doctors are required to work at medical facilities which have patient beds. But the 115 centre does not have beds so doctor who even work here for ten years have not been certificated.

If ambulances come earlier and collaboration is better, more people will be saved, Nguyễn Đình Hưng, director of Saint Paul general hospital said, adding there should be more measures to support the centre in the future.

Who will drive ambulances?

To save money, the centre did not ask to buy 150 new vehicles with the budget forecasted to amount to hundreds of billions of đồng but instead only replaced more than ten old ambulances, director Thành said.

But even when the ambulances are bought, who will drive them, he asked, once again raising a headache question over personnel.

Hưng, director of general hospital of Saint Paul, said that Hà Nội should follow emergency model of France where the centres are managed by the hospital. This solution helps solve problems related to infrastructure and personnel shortages. Following local authorities’ order, the city will develop a network of emergency stations which connect with 115 centre and hospitals.

Then it is hoped a hospital specialising in emergencies will be built. There needs to be four elements: a core hospital, a network of ambulances, a training centre and a collaborating centre, he said. 

Road at construction site facilitates illegal coal mining

Equiment and vehicles are used for illegal coal mining at the road leading to construction site of Hồ Thiên Pagoda. — Photo laodong.vn

The road which was opened to transport materials to the construction site of Hồ Thiên Pagoda in Bình Khê Commune, Đông Triều Town, is being used for illegal coal mining.

The town People’s Committee has asked the investor in the road project to speed up the closure of the road and restore the environment by the end of this month, Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The move followed a request by Secretary of the Quảng Ninh Province’s Party Committee Nguyễn Văn Đọc late last month as the road was not built according to the approved design. Moreover, it was reportedly used by illegal coal miners.

The illegal coal mining left negative impacts on the natural environment and destroyed the road from Ngọa Vân (Lying Clouds) Temple to Yên Tử Mountain. The Hồ Thiên Pagoda is located on Phật Sơn Mountain – a part of Yên Tử Range in Bình Khê Commune, Đông Triều Town.

The town People’s Committee sent a special group, led by a vice chairman of the committee, to supervise the environmental restoration, including the growing of trees there.

The local authority also carried out work to open a road to transport materials to the pagoda construction site by following the approved design strictly.

Yên Tử Mountain, located some 50km from Hạ Long City, is surrounded with scenic landscape and ancient pagodas. This sacred mountain is where King Trần Nhân Tông (1258-1308) abdicated his throne and founded Trúc Lâm Zen. It is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism.