Experts from Japan, the US, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam shared experience in treating hand-foot and mouth disease (HFMD) at a workshop in Hanoi on April 4.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that HFMD is one of the new, emerging diseases in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, and the increasing number of infections has lead to an overload at central and local paediatrics hospitals.
The workshop offers a chance for regional countries to strengthen cooperation in research and prevention of the disease, said Long.
HFMD has been detected in many countries, with a high incidence found in several developed economies in recent times.
Nearly 172,000 Vietnamese people have contracted the disease since the first case was confirmed in HCM City in 2003. Forty-nine of them died, according to the Preventive Medicine Department under the Ministry of Health.
More than 14,000 HFMD cases, including four deaths, have been detected since the beginning of this year alone, raising public concern about the quick spread of the disease among communities.
HFMD is caused by intestinal viruses of the picornaviridae family and one person can be infected with several strains of intestinal viruses. Scientists have yet to develop vaccines or effective remedies against the disease.
Workshop discusses HFMD treatment
Experts from Japan, the US, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam shared experience in treating hand-foot and mouth disease at a workshop in Hanoi on April 4.
Source: VOV
