Increased number of cases
Since the beginning of the year, Can Tho Children's Hospital has recorded more than 3,550 outpatient cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, of which the number of inpatient cases is more than 1,370 cases. According to the Department of Disease Control (Ministry of Health), Can Tho City is one of the localities in the Mekong Delta with an increasing number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases in the past 4 weeks (along with An Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long).
The nephew of Ms. Le Thi Kieu Trang (from Vinh Long province) has just turned 3 years old this year. The joy of the child entering kindergarten was not long before the child had a clear hand, foot and mouth disease, even blisters. Ms. Trang's family said that this was the first time she had this disease, so everyone was worried, the child had a high fever, colds and wheezing. Luckily, Mrs. Trang's family took her to Can Tho Children's Hospital for timely treatment and she was out of danger.
"From the case of the child as well as the children around us, we are told about the dangers and complicated developments of the disease. Even more worrying is that this year there are too many epidemics, from measles, dengue fever to hand, foot and mouth disease. Now the whole family can only take care of the child to recover quickly" - Ms. Trang said.
Similar to Ms. Trang's family's case, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Kha (from Ca Mau province) also took the child to the hospital with obvious skin symptoms. Mr. Kha expressed that at first he only thought his child had a common fever, so he was quite subjective, taking his child to see a doctor and taking medicine outside.
"The more severe the child's blisters are, the more I feel sorry for him because he is in a lot of pain. I couldn't sleep all night, and luckily I've improved a lot" - Mr. Kha said.
Doctor warns
Doctor Huynh Hung Dung, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases (Can Tho Children's Hospital) - informed that if in previous months, the Department only managed and treated 20 - 30 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease per day, then in recent weeks, there have been up to 150 cases.
Through understanding the situation, the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease is mainly in children under 10 years old, often found in the group of 1-5 years old, children's centers and kindergartens.
"Up to this point, the disease is not yet at the level of danger and we are strictly controlling the cases. Through this year's record, the signs on young skin are very clear, so parents can completely observe and proactively prevent and take their children to medical facilities for treatment" - Dr. Dung said.
According to the doctor, many parents mistakenly think that their children only have hand, foot and mouth disease once. In fact, hand, foot and mouth disease is an infectious disease caused by many strains of viruses. Therefore, some children can get the disease 2-3 times, or even more in the first years of life.
Although most cases of hand, foot and mouth disease are treated at a mild level, this disease can lead to dangerous complications if not treated promptly. Complications may include respiratory failure, pneumonia, etc.
Currently, there is no specific vaccine for hand, foot and mouth disease. The top effective preventive measures are still personal hygiene and environmental hygiene. Parents need to closely monitor children. When detecting children showing signs of illness (fever, rashes in the hands, feet, mouth), they need to take them to medical facilities for timely diagnosis and treatment, not arbitrarily using medicine or folk medicine.
