Measles patients receive treatment at the National Institute of Tropical and Infectious ANG Diseases in Hanoi. Health officials say about 340 patients have been diagnosed with the virus over the past month.

Vietnam is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in 29 years, health officials have said.

Around 340 people have been diagnosed with the virus over the past month. Most patients are adults from Hanoi or nearby Hoa Binh and Hung Yen provinces.

Nguyen Hong Ha from the National Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases in Hanoi said the last severe measles outbreak had occurred in 1982 but most of the patients then were teenagers.

Ha said the adult measles patients admitted to the institute were suffering complications such as meningitis and encephalitis.

Measles is a virus usually contracted during childhood, he said. Symptoms usually include a rash and inflammation of the nose, throat, ears, mouth and bronchi, with adults the most prone to serious complications.

Ha said seven patients, or 2 percent of the total number reported, were in critical condition, compared to the acceptable 0.1 percent ratio.

As of Tuesday, five of the patients were being treated in the institute’s special section.

The other two patients - a doctor from Hoa Binh Province and a student from Hanoi Medical University - have recovered.

Ha warned that the disease was highly infectious, with those who contract the virus likely to experience a fever and aches a couple of days before the rash appears.

The progress of the disease will either stop there or become more critical, he said.

Ha advised patients to seek medical advice to determine whether they had measles. Those with the disease needed to be quarantined to try to contain the outbreak.

Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said more adults had been succumbing to the disease because they had no immunity.

Hien said for the past few years, Vietnamese authorities could only afford one measles vaccination for children from nine to 11 months of age, not the booster shot recommended at age six.

Reported by Nam Son