VietNamNet Bridge – Six teams of medical inspectors have been set up to try to control dengue fever and hand-foot-mouth disease in HCM City, which have spread since the rainy season started in May.

Nearly 250 cases of dengue fever were treated at hospitals in one week, according to the city's Health Department.

Meanwhile, since early June, the HCM City-based Paediatrics Hospital No 2 has treated 377 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease.
Statistics from the city's Preventive Medicine Centre show that about 3,600 people caught hand-foot-mouth disease since the beginning of the year, one-and-a-half times higher than last year. Five of the patients died.

In the same period, the number of cases of dengue fever totalled 3,500, 9 per cent lower than last year. Four of the patients died.
Vo Minh Quang, from HCM City's Tropical Hospital, said on average, the hospital received 20 cases of dengue fever a day.

Do Chau Viet, a doctor at Paediatrics Hospital No 2, said that since the beginning of the rainy season, the number of children hospitalised for dengue fever had risen.

Parents were advised to take their children to the nearest medical clinic if they showed symptoms of vomiting, sweating, bellyache, or fever, Viet said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News