On September 15, Mr. Hoang Hai Phuc - Director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Dak Lak province informed that the health sector is still struggling to prevent infectious diseases such as dengue fever, measles, hand, foot and mouth disease... Among them, measles is increasing the most.
"Currently, people's awareness is still low, and the involvement of local authorities is still limited, leading to unpredictable developments of the epidemic. Frontline medical facilities are not overloaded yet, but are lacking medicine and supplies to treat patients," said Mr. Phuc.
According to statistics from CDC Dak Lak, from the beginning of 2024 until now, the whole province has recorded 98 cases of measles, with no deaths.
The number of cases increased by 100% compared to the same period in 2023. The measles vaccination rate in the whole province reached 55.3%, an increase of 1.7% compared to the same period in 2023. No district had a measles vaccination rate below 80% (7 months 46.7%).
Since the beginning of the year, the province has had more than 2,800 cases of dengue fever. Of which, one case died in Buon Ma Thuot city. It is forecasted that from now until the end of 2024, the epidemic situation will continue to be unpredictable, and the number of infections may still increase.
Not stopping there, from the beginning of 2024 until now, the whole Dak Lak province has recorded over 600 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (no deaths have been recorded).
According to Mr. Vien Chinh Chien - Director of the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Central Highlands, the number of measles patients continuously increasing in recent times shows that measles will continue to develop complicatedly, especially in the coming September and October.
In particular, Dak Lak province needs to focus on two areas with high numbers of measles cases: Buon Ma Thuot city and Lak district.
To repel the epidemic, the Dak Lak provincial health sector needs to focus on promoting propaganda to help people raise awareness of disease prevention and environmental hygiene.
In particular, localities need to promote vaccination activities to create immunity in the community. In addition, hospitals need to ensure treatment, avoiding overload and cross-infection in hospitals.
