A nurse takes care of a child who has the hand-foot-mouth disease at HCMC-based Nhi Dong 1 Hospital

Multiple disease outbreaks have hit Ho Chi Minh City children in recent weeks and hospitals are receiving patients in record numbers.

Nearly 13,000 children were brought to the bigger pediatric hospitals in the city for examination on Monday.

“Many disease outbreaks are taking place at the same time,” Dr. Tang Chi Thuong, director of HCMC Children Hospital No.1, said on Tuesday.

“The hospital is working at its full capacity, as the number of patients coming for examination and treatment has seen a record increase.”

It is estimated that 220 children were receiving treatment at the hospital’s infectious diseases department on Monday. More than 90 of these have the hand-foot-mouth disease, over 30 have swine flu and another 20 has been diagnosed with meningitis.

As the department has just 120 beds, all available space has taken to accommodate the children.

Dr. Le Bich Lien, head of the hospital’s Dengue Fever Department, said her department was also treating up to 150 kids, almost double their existing bed capacity.

The Respiratory Diseases Department, meanwhile, recorded the highest-ever number of child patients on Monday, at 280, according to Dr. Tran Anh Tuan, head of the department.

Thuong said these days the hospital is providing health examination service up to 10 p.m., while it is often ended at 8 p.m.

Children’s Hospital No.2 has seen the number of patients nearly double from 2,800-3,000 a week ago, said Dr. Trinh Huu Tung.

Doctors at several hospitals said that besides dengue, foot-hand-mouth disease and H1N1 flu, respiratory diseases are also peaking this month due to heavy rains.

Another reason for a sharp increase in the number of daily patients is that most parents bring their kids to hospitals even when they have normal fever, fearing the kids may catch swine flu.

Abnormalities

Doctors also warned that several of the disease patterns are going through unexpected changes, so care had to be taken when diagnosing and treating them.

The hand-foot-mouth disease, for example, should have lessened in July and August, but it’s showing no sign of receding and some cases have turned critical, said Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, head of Children Hospital No.1’s Infectious Diseases Department.

In fact, over the past two weeks the number of children hospitalized for the viral infections has increased by over 100 percent year-on-year. Every day between five and seven children are falling into the diseases’ third or fourth stages.

Dr. Lien, said this year the dengue fever outbreak seemed to hit earlier than usual this year.

This year it doubled in May compared to the beginning of the year, and has kept climbing since, instead of increasing gradually and peaking in June as usual, she explained.

Dr. Nguyen Dac Tho, vice director of the HCMC Preventive Health Center, said the number of dengue patients will continue increasing in September and October.

The current weekly figure of nearly 400 cases may rise to around 500 within the next few weeks, according to Le Truong Giang, deputy director of the city’s Health Department.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported another 262 people had tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) virus, increasing the country’s tally to 5,164.

Six of them have died, while 4,501 have been discharged after full recovery.

Source: Tuoi Tre