A child with diarrhea is treated at the Children’s Hospital No. 2

Cases of meningitis and hand-foot-and-mouth disease are also increasing, city hospitals report.

Phi, from the southern province of Long An, said her child had been stricken with diarrhea since last Friday, but she thought it was just a normal symptom.

“I just went to a local drugstore to buy some medicine for him thinking it was not very serious.”

But the child’s condition became worse on Friday, forcing her to rush him to the HCMC hospital where doctors diagnosed acute diarrhea.

But Phi is not the only parent who was not vigilant about the condition of her child, say doctors.

At the Department of Gastrointestinal Diseases of Children’s Hospital No. 2 Monday, many diarrhea-affected children have been hospitalized.

Tinh and Mai of Thu Duc District said their seven-month-old baby had been vomiting and suffering diarrhea for three days in a row and was diagnosed with acute diarrhea Monday.

Like Phi, the couple also said they were not aware of their baby’s serious condition.

Of up to 160 child patients hospitalized each day in recent days, between 65-70 percent were suffering from diarrhea, said Nguyen Minh Ngoc of the Department of Gastrointestinal Diseases at the Children’s Hospital No. 2.

A majority of them were below five years of age, Ngoc said.

She also said the increasing number of patients had overloaded the hospital.

If the condition of a patient improved, she or he had to lie outside the ward because it had only 87 beds, Ngoc said.

Ngoc said the lack of parental vigilance about the health of their children had made the problem worse.

She said sweltering weather and unhygienic cooking were also responsible for the sharp increase in the number of sick children admitted to hospitals recently.

The Children’s Hospital No. 1 also said of 100 patients admitted per day, 60 percent were suffering from diarrhea. Eighty children were hospitalized for diarrhea Monday alone, the hospital said.

Meningitis on the rise

Experts are saying the hot weather in southern Vietnam has been a factor in the increase in number of children with meningitis, or brain inflammation, but few parents know enough about the disease.

Children’s Hospital No. 1 in Ho Chi Minh City said Monday 31 patients were suffering from with meningitis, around 10 percent of whom were in critical condition.

At the Children’s Hospital No. 2, 15 children had meningitis, and four of them were in critical condition.

While meningitis can be caused by a virus, bacterium or other microorganisms, all the children admitted to the two hospitals so far this year have had bacterial meningitis.

Most of them are under five years old and have not been vaccinated against the disease, doctors said.

Dr. Tran Thi Thuy, deputy head of the Children’s Hospital No. 2’s infectious disease department, says the bacteria travel with dust, so hot and dry days make it easier for the pathogen to enter the body. She predicts more cases will come in until May.

The bacteria first enter the blood or respiratory system before moving to the covering of the brain and spinal cord as a person’s body becomes weaker.

Doctors advise parents to keep their children away from patients with respiratory problems and to seek immediate treatment for a child who develops respiratory inflammation.

Doctors have also warned against hand-foot-mouth disease which has started to take a toll on the children as the hot season lingers.

The Children’s Hospital No. 1 said so far at least 20 patients had been hospitalized for hand-footmouth disease, two in critical condition.

Hand-foot-mouth disease is typically contracted by children in families that live close to split-hooved animals.

Reported by Thanh Tung