The municipal Department of Health has asked the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the health ministry to supply enough treatment drugs especially two types of Phenobarbital intravenous infusion and intravenous Gamma Globulin in the context of an increasingly serious turn in the southern metropolis.
Due to a lack of medicine, the hospitals are using other sedatives to replace phenobarbital, but they are less effective.
Dr Truong Huu Khanh, former head of the Department of Neurological Infections at HCM City Children's Hospital 1 warned this year could be ‘a stressful season’ for hand, foot and mouth disease.
Results of gene sequencing in some severe cases show that Enterovirus 71, a virus strain that causes severe HFMD among young children, has returned.
On May 31, a 5-year-old boy died at Children's Hospital 1 due to suspected hand, foot and mouth disease.
According to the statistics of the hospital, the hospital received 1,349 outpatients and 158 inpatients with HFMD in the first five months of this year.
The number of severe patients has increased over the same period in 2022.
According to the World Health Organization, HFMD is a common infectious disease caused by enteroviruses that occurs most often in children under 10, but can also affect adolescents and occasionally, adults.
In most cases, the disease is mild and self-limiting, with symptoms including fever, painful sores in the mouth, and a rash with blisters on hands, feet and buttocks.