Increased child hospitalizations due to air pollution
On the morning of October 15, the National Children's Hospital was crowded with children suffering from respiratory diseases such as cough, cough with phlegm, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc. During the changing seasons with air pollution at the current warning level, it is a favorable environment for the development of respiratory and infectious diseases.
Ms. Nguyen Minh Thu, living in Quoc Oai, shared: “My child has been coughing for a whole month, coughing with phlegm, runny nose, bronchitis that cannot be cured. Today, I took my child to the National Children's Hospital for examination, the doctor diagnosed him with bronchitis. My house is near industrial parks, and there is a road under construction so there is a lot of dust, plus many friends at school are cross-infected so the disease cannot be cured.”
In another case, Ms. Le Trang shared that her child had pneumonia and went to the National Children's Hospital for examination but the medicine did not cure him: "This morning I took my child to the hospital for a check-up because the medicine prescribed by the doctor did not cure him for a month. The air in Hanoi is polluted, my child keeps coughing, has pneumonia, runny nose, and otitis media. In the family, the grandfather and father smoke, which is also the reason why he coughs a lot."
According to the National Children’s Hospital, the number of respiratory and infectious diseases is showing signs of increasing rapidly during this season. Doctors recommend that families with young children should limit their visits to public places to prevent cross-infection. If children show signs of coughing, runny nose, etc., parents should take their children to the nearest medical center with a pediatric department for examination.
Parents should not be subjective and arbitrarily buy medicine to treat their children, especially in cases where there are signs of high fever that does not go down, loss of appetite, or difficulty breathing, they must immediately take their children to the nearest medical facility for timely treatment.
RSV virus thrives during the changing seasons
The changing seasons are a favorable environment for the RSV virus to increase in young children. RSV is a respiratory syncytial virus, transmitted through the respiratory tract through direct contact with secretions from an infected person such as saliva, nasal discharge through coughing, sneezing or from hands carrying droplets containing the virus... Children often get infected with RSV in public places such as schools, playgrounds, or childcare centers, and can then transmit the virus to other family members.
At Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital (Vinh City), there are currently 54 cases of RSV infection, including 5 severe cases requiring oxygen. Similarly, Phu Tho Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital also recorded a 5-fold increase in the number of pediatric patients hospitalized due to RSV pneumonia compared to the same period in 2023.
Basic symptoms of RSV virus infection include upper respiratory tract infection, cough, sneezing, runny nose... If not treated promptly, the child will cough and wheeze a lot, breathe quickly, have a cyanotic body or have apnea and respiratory failure.
Respiratory diseases are airborne diseases, and in closed environments such as schools, they are easily cross-infected. To protect young children, prevent and limit the spread of the disease, the health sector recommends that people and parents increase monitoring of their children's health, detect early symptoms of the disease so that they can go to medical facilities for examination and treatment; ensure cleanliness and ventilation of classrooms; provide adequate nutrition to help children increase their body's resistance to seasonal flu and respiratory diseases; and take children to get vaccinated fully and on schedule according to the instructions of the health sector.
