The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control recorded 9 children infected with whooping cough in March, while in previous years only cases were occasionally detected.
“Most infected children are under two months old, an age group that has not been vaccinated,” said Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) Le Hong Nga, on April 22.
The infectious disease surveillance system recorded that in the first three months of the year, the country had many cases of infectious diseases that could be prevented by vaccines such as whooping cough and measles. Among them, Ho Chi Minh City has 9 cases of whooping cough, which is an “abnormal situation” because in the past, only one case was recorded occasionally. Hanoi recorded the highest number of whooping cough cases in the country, with 46 children. Among pediatric patients, more than 52% are under two months old, 70% have not been vaccinated or have not received the full dose. The reason is believed to be due to the long interruption in vaccine supply and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Dr. Nga, vaccination is the best way to create an immune shield to help children prevent whooping cough. HCDC recommends that parents monitor their children’s vaccination schedule and take them to be vaccinated on schedule and with enough doses. Over the weekend, Ho Chi Minh City received 13,000 doses of 5-in-1 vaccine (also known as SII) from the National Expanded Immunization Program. This amount of vaccine has been distributed to 22 district medical centers in Thu Duc City, giving free vaccination to children from this week.
SII is a combined vaccine to prevent 5 diseases including diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, pneumonia/meningitis caused by Hib bacteria. These are dangerous infectious diseases. Children, especially young children, are susceptible to these diseases, affecting their health, development, and even death.
The 5-in-1 vaccine is administered according to a basic three-dose regimen for children aged 2 months, 3 months and 4 months old. If the above times are missed, children should be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Whooping cough is an acute infectious disease that can occur at any age, most commonly in children. The disease is transmitted through the respiratory tract by direct contact with secretions from the nose and throat mucosa of a sick person when coughing or sneezing. The possibility of spreading the disease is high, especially for children living in the same closed space such as school.
The onset of the disease may be no fever or mild fever, upper respiratory tract inflammation, fatigue, loss of appetite and cough. Whooping cough is very characteristic, showing the child coughing uncontrollably, followed by a period of wheezing like a rooster crowing. At the end of a coughing fit, there is often a lot of clear mucus followed by vomiting.
The disease often progresses seriously, easily causing death due to superinfection, complications of pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, especially in children under 5 years old and malnourished children.