PM asks for stronger measures against diphtheria

Accordingly, the People’s Committees in the Central Highlands region were asked to instruct local residents to undertake preventive measures; timely bring suspected people to medical facilities; early detect infected cases; prevent disease outbreak; minimize fatalities; and vaccinate vulnerable subjects.

Public press agencies were assigned to provide information for local people to stay alert for diphtheria symptoms.

The Ministry of Education and Training was urged to deploy precautious measures at schools while the Ministry of Finance was asked to put aside expenditure for disease prevention.

Earlier, ten more people in the Central Highlands were found to have contracted the disease, bringing the total in the main coffee belt to more than 60, with Dak Lak being the latest province hit by the disease.

Three patients have died because of late detection, all of them in remote areas, which had not recorded any diphtheria cases in the past 16 years.

Dak Lak province vaccinated and isolated more than 700 people in a village of Lak district after the first case was reported.

Total cases reported this year through July 7 are already triple the number in 2019, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said. The development of the disease has been quite different from previous years, with more areas hit, patients of all ages reported and quite a high fatality rate. 

The minister expressed concern that the disease may be spreading widely because vaccination rates in the affected areas are very low. Most patients didn’t receive sufficient vaccination, with only 6% being fully immunized. 

By Khanh Phuong