Can Tho Children’s Hospital, located in Can Tho City, southern Vietnam, has managed to find an adequate supply of Immunoglobulin to treat patients with severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), confirmed the hospital’s deputy director Ong Huy Thanh on Tuesday.

Various provinces and cities, including Can Tho, in the country’s Mekong Delta region earlier encountered a shortfall of medicines like Immunoglobulin for HFMD treatment, as they failed to find any foreign suppliers while the number of serious infections kept rising.

HFMD cases recorded at the Can Tho Children’s Hospital have shown no signs of abating.

The hospital saw hospitalizations for HFMD treatment reaching 119, plus 15 child patients with severe HFMD are in ICU treatment.

As the top-tier pediatric hospital in the delta, the hospital often admits many child patients with severe HFMD infection from other regional provinces, with two severe cases dying, Thanh said.

The hospital has received more than 3,000 cases for HFMD check-ups and treatment in the year to date.

The constant rise in hospitalizations has built up pressure on the healthcare system and left medical workers burnt out, Thanh elaborated.

In Dong Thap Province, data from the provincial Center for Disease Control showed that 42 HFMD clusters with 1,031 infections and one death have been reported as yet, with most of them children aged under three.

HFMD infections began increasing rapidly in late May and remain higher than the average figure logged in the 2018-20 period.

According to the local health sector, parents should keep a close watch on their children, especially when they develop symptoms of HFMD such as having a fever of 38.5 degrees Celsius or above and being unresponsive to fever reducers.

Besides, parents should monitor startle response in kids, as it is a sign of neurotoxicity.

In addition, parents should pay attention to persistent crying in babies.

If they can sleep for 15-20 minutes only and then wake up crying before going back to sleep, this sign is also linked to a possibility of neurotoxicity at an early stage.​

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