NewsDesk @bactiman63

Information from the Center for Disease Control of Ho Chi Minh City (HCDC) the city’s infectious disease surveillance system has recorded a cluster of influenza A/H1N1 cases with 20 students in a school.

H1N1 influenza virus particles/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Specifically, on March 16, HCDC received a notice from the District 10 Medical Center about the unusual increase in the number of students of Vo Truong Toan Primary School taking sick leave.

Immediately after receiving the information, HCDC quickly coordinated with Children’s Hospital 1 and District 10 Medical Center to conduct epidemiological investigation, organize visits and examination for the children.

In 2 days from March 15 to 16, the number of students taking sick leave in a class increased abnormally with 20 students with symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, and vomiting. Some students have a fever of up to 39 degrees Celsius.

Through visits and examinations, the doctors suspected the children had influenza and randomly took 6 flu test samples and sent them to the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City for isolation.

As a result, all 6 samples were positive for influenza A/H1N1. From March 17 to now, Vo Truong Toan Primary School has not recorded any new cases of flu symptoms.

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Previously, a cluster of respiratory illnesses with dozens of students infected was recorded at two other schools in Binh Thanh district.

Influenza A/H1N1 is an infectious disease that spreads easily from person to person like other common seasonal flu strains. Although not as dangerous as influenza A/H5N1, influenza A/H7N9 but influenza A/H1N1 can also cause superinfection, severe pneumonia, and can even cause multi-organ failure and death in some people with chronic diseases.

The HCDC recommends that Ho Chi Minh City is in the peak season of respiratory diseases, which are easily spread in crowded environments. Therefore, educational institutions need to manage students by taking attendance every day.

If a student is found to have an infectious disease or records two students with health problems at the same time or an unusual increase in the number of sick students, the school should immediately notify the Health Station. and local Health Center for timely treatment.

At the same time, when there is a case where a student is absent for many consecutive days for unknown reasons, the homeroom teacher and the school must actively contact parents to determine if they have an infectious disease.

In addition, when a cluster of cases is detected, the school continues to monitor the situation of students who are absent or have new symptoms every day at school (including holidays), updating the list of students infected by symptoms. evidence, time, class and report to the ward and commune health station according to regulations.

The medical station supports the school’s medical staff in examining and exploiting the symptoms, eating and drinking history of students, and coordinating with the medical center to monitor and monitor the epidemic situation at the school.

Schools should cooperate with health stations of wards and communes to strengthen communication on infectious diseases such as characteristics, how to recognize signs of diseases and measures to prevent and control them; how to handle, care for and monitor children’s health; mobilize parents to take their children to a doctor soon when there are suspicious symptoms and feedback information to the school for management and monitoring.

Parents actively vaccinate their children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza, chickenpox, mumps… because vaccination is the most effective preventive measure to reduce the incidence and rate of serious diseases caused by infectious diseases.