According to information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC), an outbreak of an unknown disease is occurring in the Panzi area, Kwango province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
As of December 12, a total of 527 cases have been recorded, including 32 deaths in medical facilities. The cases are mainly children (53% of cases and 54.8% of deaths are under 5 years old) and all severe cases have severe malnutrition.
On the evening of December 17, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health informed that in order to be proactive and ready to respond when the epidemic enters, the unit directed the City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) to closely monitor the epidemic situation, continuously contact and connect units to update information. At the same time, prepare response plans according to each level of epidemic risk.
HCDC has an International Health Quarantine department on duty 24/7 at Tan Son Nhat International Airport and Ho Chi Minh City Maritime Port to control the risk of infectious diseases entering the city from abroad.
At Tan Son Nhat, medical quarantine officers continuously monitor incoming passengers through a remote body temperature measurement system and observe for unusual health symptoms while passengers continue to move normally, without any restrictions.
Depending on the epidemic situation, HCDC will activate the early warning monitoring system at medical examination and treatment facilities and in the community through a network of community health collaborators that currently covers 21 districts and Thu Duc City; deploy a network of admission and treatment routes as soon as suspected cases are detected...
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health recommends that people should not travel to epidemic areas if not necessary. For those who have traveled to epidemic areas, if they detect suspicious symptoms, they should immediately go to a medical facility and provide medical staff with full information about their travel history.
The Department of Preventive Medicine - Ministry of Health is closely monitoring the development of the epidemic situation, proactively conducting surveillance based on events and information about the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo and coordinating with WHO as well as IHR focal points of countries to update and share information about the epidemic.
