More than 71,470 people in all 63 provinces and cities had contracted hand, foot and mouth disease this year, with 130 people dying of it, the Ministry of Health reported.
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| Children with the hand, foot and mouth disease being treated at Pediatrics Hospital 1, HCMC |
In October alone there have been 10,000 cases and 16 deaths.
But the ministry has yet to announce the disease as a pandemic since it “remained under control,” Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told Tuoi Tre.
Nguyen Van Binh, head of the ministry’s Preventive Health Department, said: “The ministry only announces a national pandemic after at least two localities announce a disease as a pandemic.”
Ho Chi Minh City and Quang Ngai, Dong Thap and Dong Nai provinces have suffered most from the disease, the department said.
In HCMC, some 300 people contracted the disease every week and three had died in October, the HCMC Preventive Health Center reported.
So far this year 10,000 people had contracted the disease in the city, 28 of them fatally, Nguyen Hoai Nam, head of the city Health Department’s Transaction Office, said.
(Source: TTNews)
