According to the Ministry of Health’s Drug Management Department, the bottles will be distributed to hospitals to treat an increasing number of hand, foot and mouth patients.
Hand, foot and mouth patients are on the rise in Vietnam
The Drug Management Department said that the drugs currently being used in the basic treatment of hand, foot, and mouth disease do meet demand. However, there has been a shortage of intravenous immunoglobulin for infusion.
The Ministry of Health has asked localities to submit their plan on the hand, foot and mouth disease medicine purchase and reserves for consideration.
In the first half of this year, Vietnam recorded 12,600 hand, foot and mouth cases, including at least seven fatalities.
Immunoglobulin is used for severe hand, foot and mouth patients and helps to reduce the risk of severe complications. But the medicine can only be produced from human plasma and cannot be produced domestically.
Meanwhile, immunoglobulin production totally depends on the plasma supply through blood donation. During the Covid-19 pandemic, less people donated blood, which has resulted in the lack of raw materials for immunoglobulin production.
