Strengthen measures to proactively prevent and control diphtheria outbreak

Accordingly, People’s Committees of provinces, cities directly under the central government are asked to instruct local residents to undertake preventive measures; launch communication campaigns; timely bring suspected people to medical facilities; early detect infected cases; prevent disease outbreak; minimize fatalities; and vaccinate vulnerable subjects.

The Prime Minister also asked the designated agencies to closely monitor the outbreak, early detect and timely treat infected people as well as healthy people with germs, so as to minimize deaths. He called for a large-scale vaccination campaign to be launched in the Central Highlands, the country’s diphtheria hotspot, with priority given to children who are most vulnerable to infection.

Public press agencies were assigned to provide information for local people to stay alert for diphtheria symptoms.

The Ministry of Education and Training is urged to deploy precautious measures at schools while the Ministry of Finance is asked to put aside expenditure for disease prevention.

As reported by the Ministry of Health, diphtheria has spread to four Central Highlands provinces of Dak Nong, Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Dak Lak. 78 people have been confirmed positive for the Corynebacterium diphtheria bacterium that causes the outbreak in the region up to 12 July, already triple the number in 2019. Most positive cases have been detected in remote areas and have not been vaccinated against diphtheria or not fully vaccinated on schedule. Three people have died because of late detection, all of them in remote areas, which had not recorded any diphtheria cases in the past 16 years.

The Ministry of Health is launching a large-scale vaccination campaign, starting on July 9, in the Central Highlands and the two high-risk neighboring provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Nam.  

Hoang Le