The Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City has just issued an urgent dispatch to units in the city to prevent and prevent avian influenza (Influenza A H5N1) on a large scale before the risk of this flu strain entering the city. .
In the face of the risk that influenza A H5N1 might enter at any time, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City has been actively arranging hospital beds, rearranging rooms and staff to prepare for the arrival if a case is detected. flu in the city. The hospital has also prepared a D-infection department with 20 emergency beds to resuscitate severe patients and more than 50 beds for mild to severe patients.
“Our hospital has scripts and is ready to prepare personnel and equipment to receive cases if the situation of influenza A H5N1 occurs. Especially, the D infection department always has recovery beds. as well as hospital beds to receive moderate to severe cases,” said Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong – Head of Department of Infection D, Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City.
Dr. Phong also shared: H5N1 flu has a very high risk of death. This is a threat not inferior to COVID-19. When patients with H5N1, respiratory failure progressed very quickly, even though I treated actively, the mortality rate was still close to 70%, really this is a worrying thing. Early detection to avoid community spread is very important.”
Staff at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City arrange patient beds and rearrange rooms to be ready to receive H5N1 patients.
In addition to monitoring at gateways, airports and bordering areas, the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City has also assigned medical centers in districts and Thu Duc City to strengthen surveillance to detect cases early. Severe viral pneumonia in health facilities and in the community. Pay special attention to cases with epidemiological history coming from epidemic areas, and immediately report to the Center for Disease Control of Ho Chi Minh City to implement timely epidemic prevention measures.
In fact, Ho Chi Minh City is a city with a lot of traffic, the number of people going and coming is very large. In addition to road traffic, there are border gates, both air and sea border gates, so there are many potential risks of infection.
Ms. Le Hong Nga – Deputy Director of the Center for Disease Control of Ho Chi Minh City (HCDC) said: “Under the urgent and drastic direction of the City People’s Committee, HCDC has actively coordinated with relevant agencies such as: with the Sub-Department of Veterinary Medicine to supervise at border gates and prevent epidemics from entering”.
In addition, HCDC also strengthens surveillance for early detection of severe cases of viral pneumonia in health facilities and communities, paying attention to cases with epidemiological history traveling to/to/from epidemic areas. . At the same time, carry out communication on prevention of infection from poultry to humans, strictly control as well as early detection of the first case of infection.
According to Ms. Le Hong Nga, the passing of the COVID-19 pandemic has left us with a lot of pain and experience. The first is people’s awareness of self-protection once morest the infection of dangerous diseases. This is one of the favorable conditions for the health sector to convey health education and communication messages regarding appropriate and correct behaviors to prevent avian influenza in the community.
The second is that the COVID-19 pandemic gives us lessons in the organization, monitoring and prevention of epidemics as well as care and treatment in the community. The third is the inter-sectoral coordination, “never before has the inter-sectoral coordination between specialized departments and local authorities as close as during the COVID-19 pandemic. That is one of the very favorable preconditions for We can control bird flu in the area,” said Ms. Nga.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dac Phu – former Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health said that influenza A/H5N1 virus usually exists in poultry or wild birds. This virus can spread to close contacts, with a high mortality rate.
Therefore, in addition to the measures being actively implemented by the authorities, doctors also recommend that people take initiative in prevention. Accordingly, poultry farmers in contact with poultry need to improve self-awareness, detect abnormalities in their grazing places to prevent timely.
In addition, people also need to choose from poultry that are sourced, guaranteed to be quarantined, and only use these foods when they are cooked.
