Ms. Le Thi Thuy (Hanoi) said that her 1-year-old daughter has had hand, foot and mouth disease for 3 days. Before that, the child only had a fever and cried but no rash appeared on the skin. When admitted to the hospital, doctors examined and tested, and then determined the disease. Currently, the child has many ulcers in the mouth and rash on the skin. The family is concerned about EV71 strain, but the results show that the child is not infected with this virus strain.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Thanh Nhan Hospital said that in the Department of Pediatrics, the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease is on the rise. In March alone, 15 cases were recorded; from April 1-4 to April 14, 11 more children were hospitalized. Cases mainly focus on children aged 0-5 years old. Notably, the circulation of the EV71 virus strain is causing many parents to worry.
Information from the National Children's Hospital, from the beginning of the year to now, nearly 3,000 children have been diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease, of which about 1/3 of cases have to be hospitalized for treatment. Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of cases increased by 56%, the number of inpatients doubled. Most cases are mild. However, there are still some cases that progress quickly, severely and cause dangerous complications.
MSc.BS Vu Van An - Center for Tropical Diseases, National Children's Hospital - emphasized that children can completely get hand, foot and mouth disease many times, the reason is that the disease is caused by many different virus strains belonging to the Enterovirus group, the body only creates antibodies with a specific strain, so children can completely re-infect.
Doctors also noted some signs suspected of hand, foot and mouth disease that parents should not ignore in the summer, hot and humid weather: "When you see a child with a high fever above 39 degrees Celsius or continuous fever for 48 hours, vomiting, unable to eat or drink, startling, trembling limbs, staggering walking, rapid breathing, purple veins on the skin or coma, parents need to take the child to the nearest medical facility immediately.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, from the beginning of 2026 to now, the whole country has recorded 26,000 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease and 8 deaths. Among them, the most common is the EV71 virus strain, which is 3 - 5 times more likely to cause serious diseases than other agents.
Doctor Luong Quoc Dai - Head of VNVC ICon4 Vaccination Center, VNVC Vaccination System - said: "EV71 is the most dangerous strain today because the virus directly attacks the nervous system, can cause meningitis, myocarditis, acute pulmonary edema, respiratory failure and lead to death if not treated promptly". Hot and humid weather appearing early creates favorable conditions for pathogens to circulate. In addition, the appearance of EV71 strain increases the risk of recording severe cases.
Meanwhile, dengue fever also recorded complicated developments with 31,927 cases and 4 deaths. According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, erratic rainy and sunny weather and high population density in urban areas create conditions for disease-transmitting mosquitoes to develop. Striped mosquitoes can reproduce in water containers around houses such as flower vases, water trays, buckets or old tires, not only in dirty water. Therefore, spraying chemicals is not effective for a long time.
To prevent disease, families need to clean up, remove water containers, cover water containers tightly and regularly change and wash containers. In addition, mosquito nets should be used, wear long-sleeved clothes to limit mosquito bites and coordinate with functional agencies when deploying outbreak handling.
