HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The number of peoplehospitalised in Ho Chi Minh City with contagious diseases this year has sharplyincreased compared with the same period a year ago, according to the city’sPreventive Medicine Centre.

So far this year, there have been 10,115 cases of denguefever, an increase of 243 percent.

The number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases increasedby 22 percent, while the number of measles patients increased by 1,560.

Every district has suffered from outbreaks of measles, with district8, Binh Tan and Binh Chanh districts reporting the highest numbers.

Of the 1,564 cases this year, 96 percent did not getvaccinated and 48 percent were children aged 18 months to 10 years.  

The centre warned that people should take preventivemeasures such as getting vaccinated.

Under a plan to replace the Korean-made Quinvaxemfive-in-one vaccine in the national expanded immunisation programme, the citystarted using the ComBE Five from February 11.

It protects infants against five common life-threateningdiseases – diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and Haemophilusinfluenza type B.

This year 6,153 infants had got the vaccine as of March 21.Of them, 597 had normal reactions such as fever, swelling at the vaccinationsite and others.

There were no cases of severe complications from thevaccine, according to the municipal Department of Health.

In January the department had instructed the centre tocollaborate with Paediatrics Hospital No.1 to provide training to staff at thevaccine supply facility in all 24 district health centres, 314 ward and communehealth stations, 14 hospitals and other centres.

It was aimed at teaching them to monitor and treat infantssuffering from severe reactions to vaccination.

The centre urged people to take their children to healthstations near their house to get counselling and vaccinations.

Every child in the city is entitled to free vaccinationsunder the national expanded immunisation programme.-VNS/VNA