Confusion with common fever
Lying among the tangled medical equipment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Can Tho City Children's Hospital is the child of Mr. Nguyen Minh Trieu (Vinh Long province) who is just over 5 months old. Admitted to the hospital at the end of June, by July 2, this patient was still dependent on a ventilator and intensive care from the medical team.
Sharing with us, Mr. Trieu recalled that when he saw his child crying and feeling uncomfortable, he thought the baby only had a common fever due to hot weather. Unexpectedly, after only a few hours, the situation became more serious. At that time, the baby seemed paralyzed, often struggling and startling.
These are very strange symptoms, causing the whole family to panic and realize that it is no longer a fever. Fortunately, as soon as he was admitted to the hospital, doctors at the ICU Department examined him in time and were on duty day and night to closely monitor the baby's progress" - Mr. Trieu said.
Sharing the same restless feeling, Ms. Le Ngoc Linh (resident of Dong Thuan commune, Can Tho city) choked up: "My child is 11 months and 29 days old, she should have her first birthday tomorrow, but now she is seriously ill, so the whole family is very sad.
In general, parents whose children have hand, foot and mouth disease lying here all recognize that they have often heard that hand, foot and mouth disease is common in children of preschool age and the signs are blisters on the skin. Now that doctors have informed them, parents understand that in addition to causing skin damage, children can also get serious diseases, directly attacking internal organs.
Doctor warns
Up to this point, basically, the hand, foot and mouth disease situation in the Mekong Delta region this year has not had a sudden change compared to recent years in terms of both age of infection and disease-causing strain. However, the most worrying thing is the situation that many cases are becoming more severe. Can Tho City Children's Hospital always arranges separate rooms for children with infectious diseases for timely treatment and at this time, the number of hand, foot and mouth disease patients accounts for the majority.
On average, the ICU Department receives and treats about 10 severe cases/day, ranging in age from children a few months old to 7-8 years old" - Dr. Phan Nhat Khuong, Deputy Head of the ICU, said.
According to Dr. Khuong, in fact, many parents still maintain the subjective view that hand, foot and mouth disease only spreads strongly and is most common in nurseries and kindergartens when children are exposed to crowds. This is a dangerous mistake.
Through treatment, many cases see that children have coughs, so they think they have respiratory diseases, such as bronchiolitis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia... Here, there is a case of rapid test for Enterovirus 71 strain (EV71) positive, within the diagnosis standard of hand, foot and mouth disease level 3, rapid pulse, increased blood pressure" - Dr. Khuong said.
Recommendations from doctors and parents need to pay special attention to signs such as children having a continuous high fever that is difficult to lower; children showing signs of startling and struggling (especially when starting to vaguely fall asleep or right after lying down); children crying for no reason, sluggish, weak limbs... to take the baby to the hospital. Proactively preventing illness, parents and caregivers need to strictly practice washing hands regularly with soap before caring for and feeding children; disinfecting the surface of toys and floors.
