On the morning of November 24, speaking with reporters, Mr. Ly Van Chuyen - Director of Bao Lam District Medical Center - confirmed the above information.
Mr. Chuyen said that the deceased case was Giang Mi H (born in 2013), residing in Khau Noong, Thach Lam commune, who had signs of coughing 1 month ago, lost weight and had a fever but still went to school normally.
"Currently, there are about 20 F1s and close contacts. The unit is currently disinfecting and isolating them, and closely monitoring them to promptly handle cases of close contact with the patient," said Mr. Chuyen.
As for patient H, 3 days before being admitted to the hospital, he coughed a lot with bloody phlegm, had difficulty breathing, was tired and could not eat or drink. He took medicine at home but did not get better.
On November 20, the family took H to Bao Lam District Medical Center for examination and treatment. After examination, the patient was diagnosed with pneumonia, monitored for pulmonary tuberculosis/diphtheria unclassified, pharyngeal candidiasis, unspecified abdominal pain and was treated in the infectious disease department according to the treatment regimen.
Suspecting that the patient had diphtheria, the District Medical Center immediately took a throat sample and sent it to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing.
The treatment progressed severely, and at 9:00 p.m. on November 21, the patient died.
Sharing more with reporters, the Director of Bao Lam District Medical Center said that in recent years, there have been many cases in the district with symptoms similar to diphtheria, but the test results were negative. Only in the case of child H. did he test positive for diphtheria.
Currently, the Cao Bang Provincial Center for Disease Control has established a working group to coordinate with the Provincial General Hospital, and at the same time, assigned a working group from the Department of Health to monitor, direct and immediately support the District Health Center in implementing diphtheria prevention and control work in the area.
Diphtheria is a group B infectious disease, transmitted through the respiratory tract through contact with sick people and healthy people carrying the bacteria. The incubation period is usually from 2 to 5 days with the main clinical manifestations such as: fever, cough, sore throat, painful swollen lymph nodes in the jaw angle, infection, systemic poisoning, with gray-white, tough, sticky pseudomembrane in the tonsils or posterior pharyngeal wall. Patients may also have myocarditis, neurotoxicity leading to death due to bacterial exotoxins.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diphtheria is a disease with a high mortality rate (about 20%), with a high mortality rate in young children and adolescents. In Vietnam, thanks to the effective implementation of diphtheria vaccination in the Expanded Immunization Program for children, the incidence of the disease has decreased significantly. However, the disease still has the potential to break out and spread in localities with low diphtheria vaccination rates.
