According to the Da Nang City Statistics Office, in August, in Da Nang, there were 629 children with hand, foot and mouth disease and 5 new outbreaks. Accumulated in the first 8 months of the year, Da Nang recorded up to 3.731 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease and 57 outbreaks. Compared to the same period last year, the number of cases has increased nearly 3 times, while the number of outbreaks has increased sharply by 19 times.
The Da Nang Center for Disease Control (CDC) believes that hand, foot and mouth disease tends to peak in September and October every year. This is right at the time when children simultaneously return to school, increasing contact and collective activities at nurseries and kindergartens. If personal hygiene and environmental sanitation at educational institutions are not strictly controlled, the risk of cross-infection in the community is very high.
Faced with this situation, the Department of Disease Prevention (Ministry of Health) and CDC Da Nang recommend that families and schools should proactively implement the "3 cleanliness" principle including clean eating, clean living and clean hands. Parents and teachers need to train children in the habit of washing hands with soap regularly, and at the same time pay attention to cleaning toys, school supplies and daily contact surfaces with conventional detergents.
The health sector also notes that kindergartens need to closely monitor children's health every day. When detecting suspicious signs such as fever, mouth ulcers or blisters on the palms of hands and feet, schools need to proactively let children take leave from school and notify families to take children to the doctor in time. In particular, parents need to take children to medical facilities immediately if they see dangerous signs of severe change such as high fever that is difficult to lower, continuous startling, tremors in hands and feet, frequent vomiting or abnormal crying.
