Thanh Hoa1,000 people in the diphtheria outbreak area in Muong Lat town were given priority to receive reduced dose diphtheria-tetanus vaccine (Td).
On the morning of August 15, Dr. Hoang Binh Yen, Director of the Thanh Hoa Center for Disease Control (CDC), announced the above information, adding that the diphtheria vaccination plan is expected to be implemented in the next week.
Previously, Thanh Hoa CDC proposed that the Ministry of Health provide 30,000 doses of Td vaccine, but has only received 1,000 doses. Health officials decided to reserve all of these vaccines for people in the epidemic area – the high-risk group. Later, if more vaccines are added, CDC will vaccinate the entire population of Muong Lat town and three neighboring communes including Tam Chung, Pu Nhi and Quang Chieu.
In the past 10 days, since the first case of diphtheria appeared in Doan Ket Quarter in the border district of Muong Lat, nearly 800 people have been given preventive antibiotics, mainly residents and staff participating in epidemic prevention. To date, authorities have recorded 3 positive cases in the infection chain here and 34 close contacts have been quarantined for monitoring.
According to Mr. Yen, all three patients tested negative for diphtheria, are in stable health, and have been discharged from the hospital. They will continue to be isolated for 21 days (from the time of onset of the disease) at home and monitored for about two more months before all activities return to normal. The 34 close contacts are in good health.
Thus, to date, authorities have not recorded any new cases of diphtheria in this outbreak. The Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee has maintained the declaration of a diphtheria epidemic in Muong Lat to focus on anti-epidemic measures. According to regulations, after 14 days from the date of the epidemic announcement without recording any new positive cases, the provincial leaders will declare the end of the epidemic.
Medical staff spray disinfectant in the Muong Lat epidemic area, August 14. Photo: Lam Son
On August 5, the Thanh Hoa Center for Disease Control (CDC) detected the first case of diphtheria in a 17-year-old pregnant woman. Three days later, two people, a 10-year-old boy and a 74-year-old woman, relatives of the pregnant woman, also tested positive. Doan Ket neighborhood was the first diphtheria outbreak of the year in Thanh Hoa province.
Authorities have not yet determined the source of infection for the pregnant woman, so the diphtheria epidemic situation in Doan Ket neighborhood is complicated. In addition, vaccination results in recent years in Muong Lat have not met requirements due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and the scarcity of vaccines containing diphtheria.
Diphtheria is a dangerous infectious disease, capable of causing epidemics, transmitted directly from sick people to healthy people through the respiratory tract, intermediate objects. The incubation period is about two weeks before starting to infect others. The main symptom of the disease is sore throat, with a white pseudomembrane due to inflamed cells adhering to the inside of the throat.
The Ministry of Health warned in July that diphtheria has not been eliminated in our country, and people can still get the disease if they have not been vaccinated and come into contact with the pathogen. Since the beginning of the year, the country has recorded 5 cases of diphtheria, including one death, an 18-year-old female student in Nghe An.