A measles patient is treated in Hanoi. Measles, rubella and chicken pox have all hit major Vietnamese cities.

Rubella threatens to “spread all over” Ho Chi Minh City while new measles cases in the southern hub and a chicken pox vaccine shortage have put health agencies on high alert.

Department told the municipal People’s Committee and the Ministry of Health Thursday.

More than 100 customers come to the shop every day.

No other rubella case was reported in the area but the department has warned of “a very high risk the disease might spread all over the city.”

The department also asked the city and District 3 preventive health centers to ensure hygienic conditions in the neighborhood and find the source of the infections while monitoring those who have contacted the patients.

The shop has been ordered to close temporarily.

Also Thursday, the health department announced five new cases of measles, three of them children, raising the number of measles patients in the city to seven.

One of the patients, 29 years of age, is suspected to have caught the virus on a trip to Hanoi and Quang Ninh Province as he showed symptoms three days after returning.

The decade’s worst outbreak of measles has hit Hanoi this year, according to the Central Children’s Hospital.

Phan Van Nghiem from HCMC Health Department told Thanh Nien Thursday that the department is cooperating with preventive health centers in districts hit by measles and rubella to stop the diseases from spreading.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that 1,500 to 2,000 people catch measles in Vietnam every year on average.

This year, 505 people from 21 cities and provinces have tested positive for the disease, most of them 20-24 years of age.

Many of the adult cases are due to improper childhood vaccinations.

However, the ministry said more than 90 percent of Vietnamese children have been vaccinated against measles since 2000.

People are encouraged to be vaccinated in advance to give enough time for the antibodies to form before an epidemic breaks out.

Deputy Minister Cao Minh Quang said adults who have caught measles don’t need vaccinations because they are already immune.

Quang has guaranteed that a slight shortage of measles-mumps-rubella vaccines will end in one or two days.

But the central city of Da Nang and its southern neighbor Quang Nam Province don’t have enough vaccines at hand.

Ton That Thanh, director of the city Preventive Health Center, said the city is only ready to offer 7,000 injections against measles to children while adults who want vaccinations will have to wait for around 10 days.

Five people with a fever and rash in Da Nang are thought to have measles, said Thanh.

Samples from the patients have been sent for tests at the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang Town, Khanh Hoa Province.

The Da Nang center said that chicken pox in the city has been getting worse, with 75 cases over the past month.

Da Nang authorities said they had enough chicken pox medicine but the Quang Nam Province Preventive Health Center reported a severe shortage of chicken pox vaccines Thursday.

No state-owned clinics or hospitals in the province have any of the vaccine, authorities said.

Each chicken pox injection costs some VND300,000 ($17).

The number of Quang Nam residents infected with the disease has continued to increase this week, said local agencies. Some 50 adults now have it in the province.

Dien Ban District has reported the most cases with 20, but director of the district preventive health center told Thanh Nien Thursday that he had not been informed of the number.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff