Hospitalisations in the central province of Quang Ngai keep rising after the flood due to various diseases.
On November 3, the delegation team of the Ministry of Health led by Nguyen Hung Long, vice head of the Vietnam Food Administration worked with the health department in Quang Ngai about environment pollution, malnutrition and diseases problems after the recent floods.
Nguyen Hung Long, deputy head of Vietnam Food Administration speaks at the meeting with local authorities in Quang Ngai Province on November 3.
Huynh Gioi, director of Quang Ngai General Hospital said they only had 14 cases during the Storm Molave but the number of patients rose sharply after the storm and floods. From October 29 to November 2, they received 300 cases. The patients were injured while repairing their roof or because the houses were crushed by trees. Many people have high fevers. The Faculty of Infectious Diseases only has 45 beds but some days, they received up to 90 patients.
"We used to have 120-140 cases a day. After the storms, these figures double from 185-280 cases," Gioi said.
Moreover, the number of dengue fever patients is also rising. The hospital is receiving between 30-40 dengue fever cases a day. The environment pollution must be dealt with quickly to prevent an outbreak.
Quang Ngai Maternity Hospital also is also seeing an influx of patients after the flood. The hospital director, Nguyen Dinh Tuyen, said the most common cases are otitis media and unknown high fever in children. The respiratory faculty has 65 beds but the number of patients was over 160. Diphtheria outbreak in seven communes in Ba To District has been under control. Public immunisation programmes are affected and postponed because of the flood.
The hospital also said that they had difficulties in dealing with environmental pollution because of too many fallen trees, dead animals and rubbish. Power outage and lack of clean water are also major problems that needed to be dealt with.
Pham Minh Duc, deputy director of Quang Ngai Department of Health said the estimated damage to medical facilities was over VND29bn. The estimated damage to medicines, chemical substances and equipment was over VND3.5bn. The department has asked the Ministry of Health to provide medicines, 150 life jackets and five tonnes of chloramine B to 100 facilities.
Nguyen Hung Long, deputy head of Vietnam Food Administration, praised the prevention works and urged the local authorities to deal with the pollution after floods as quick as possible.
"Many diseases are developing. The signs will be clearer in the next one or two weeks if we don't deal with the pollution quickly," he said.
