3 dangerous diseases reappear in summer, many people die

Dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease and meningococcal meningitis have all begun to increase in number of cases, with at least 10 deaths.

With dengue fever, in April alone, the whole country recorded nearly 7,000 cases, 2 deaths. While the average for the first 3 months of the year only recorded about 4,000 patients.

Since the beginning of the year, the country has recorded about 21,000 cases of dengue fever, including 8 deaths. Compared to the same period last year, the number of cases decreased by 26%, but the number of deaths increased by 1.

The disease is mainly concentrated in the southern provinces. The number of patients will increase even more in the near future as the rainy season begins in the south, while the heat wave hits the north.

Summer is the time when dengue fever cases increase rapidly.

It is worth noting that there are up to 4 types of dengue virus, so patients who have had it can still get it again, and the next time it may even be more severe than the last time.

If a person has been infected with a strain of virus, they can only develop lifelong immunity to that strain of virus.

Most deaths due to dengue fever are due to subjective reasons and late hospitalization when multiple organ failure has occurred.

Therefore, doctors recommend that people do not treat dengue fever at home on their own. If you have suspicious symptoms such as high fever lasting 2-7 days, difficult to reduce fever; muscle pain, joint pain; nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache; rash, subcutaneous bleeding... you need to go to a medical facility immediately.

Similarly, hand, foot and mouth disease also increased sharply in April with more than 4,500 cases, while the total number of cases in the first 3 months of the year was only over 6,200. Compared to the same period in 2016, the number of cases increased by more than 26%.

Entering summer, people also need to pay special attention to meningococcal disease. Since the beginning of the year, the country has had 11 cases, 2 deaths.

Unlike viral encephalitis, meningococcal disease is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacteria Neisseria Meningitidis, spread through the respiratory tract.

Meningococcal disease can occur at any age, but the two age groups most susceptible to meningococcal infection are children aged 6 months to 3 years and adolescents aged 14 to 20 years.

This bacteria often causes meningitis and meningococcal sepsis with symptoms of sudden high fever of 39-40 degrees Celsius, severe headache, stiff neck, and purple rash.

A 24-year-old man in Hanoi is being treated for meningococcal encephalitis at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Diagnosing meningococcal disease in the early stages is difficult because the symptoms are similar to those of other common viral meningitis, and the patient can die within 24 hours of onset.

Meningococcal meningitis has many forms, the most severe of which is fulminant sepsis with 80% of patients dying, while purulent meningitis has a mortality rate of 30-40%.

There are currently two types of vaccines, AC and BC, to prevent meningococcal meningitis. Therefore, people can get both BC (prevents types B, C) and AC (prevents types A, C) vaccines to increase immunity.

According to VNN