Actively handle the environment and prevent epidemics

(Baonghean.vn) – To overcome the consequences of floods and stabilize the lives of people in the flooded areas of Quynh Luu and Hoang Mai, the health sector is actively helping people treat the environment and prevent epidemics.

According to statistics from the Quynh Luu District Medical Center, due to the impact of storm No. 10 and the release of floodwaters from the Mau Dam yesterday, 28 communes of Hoang Mai town with more than 11,700 households were severely flooded. This is also the area where most people raise livestock, poultry, and aquaculture, so the water source is seriously polluted by dead livestock, poultry, and livestock waste. The risk of disease outbreaks is very high, especially some epidemics that are circulating such as: pink eye, dengue fever, diarrhea. Water treatment, environmental sanitation and disease prevention are important tasks in the flood area and have been implemented by the health sector as soon as the water recedes.

Doctor Le Van Thao - Director of Quynh Luu District Medical Center said: Before, during and after the flood, in addition to directing medical stations to prevent epidemics and instructing local people to clean up the environment, we promptly provided medicines and chemicals, and sent staff to the areas to instruct people on how to treat water sources to ensure clean water for use in the days after the flood, and propagated in many forms how to prevent epidemics... striving to prevent epidemics from occurring in the area.

In the past few days, due to the rapid rise of the flood, not only people suffered heavy losses but also the medical stations of the communes of Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town were flooded, damaging many medical equipment and instruments, significantly affecting the examination, treatment and emergency care for the people. After the flood receded, the staff of the commune medical stations were urgently cleaning up and sanitizing to ensure the reception and treatment of patients.

Talking to us, Doctor Nguyen Thi Phuong - Head of Quynh Di Commune Health Station - Hoang Mai Town said: The most difficult problem at this time is the power outage, so we cannot propagate on the radio system and cannot dry the instruments, especially the delivery instruments. We only have one set of spare instruments, which we used for yesterday's delivery. If there is a delivery tonight or tomorrow, we really don't know what to do...

Faced with the situation of environmental pollution and the possibility of disease outbreaks at any time, leaders of the provincial health department and preventive health workers have been continuously present in the heavily flooded communes of Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town to direct the work of water treatment and disease prevention. In addition to the on-site reserve of drugs and chemicals provided by the district health center, on the morning of October 3, the Department of Health also urgently supplemented the stock of chemicals and medicines: 9,000 Aquatas disinfectant tablets, 50 kg of Cloramin B chemicals for Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town.

Dr. Bui Dinh Long - Director of the Department of Health checks the equipment of the Hoang Mai Town Regional Clinic after the flood.

After conducting a field inspection in Hoang Mai, Specialist Doctor 2 Bui Dinh Long - Director of Nghe An Department of Health told us: With the determination to not let the epidemic occur in the flooded communes, the Department of Health has directed units to strengthen monitoring, simultaneously deploy disease prevention measures, focus on environmental sanitation, treat water sources with chemicals to have enough clean water for people to use... However, currently the risk of an epidemic is very high, so disease prevention is no longer the task of the health sector alone but requires the participation of the entire political system and local authorities....

Staff of Hoang Mai Town Regional Clinic instruct people on how to treat domestic water.

What is worrying is that Quynh Luu and Hoang Mai Town are potential areas for outbreaks of dengue fever and dangerous acute diarrhea. Epidemics occur almost every year in the area. If environmental sanitation is not carried out well at this time, the risk of outbreaks of dengue fever and dangerous acute diarrhea is inevitable. In addition, pink eye is also spreading in many localities across the country, so the epidemic is also very contagious and can break out in polluted areas such as Quy Luu and Hoang Mai Town.

To prevent and not let epidemics occur after floods, in addition to the efforts of the health sector, active coordination of departments, branches, and local authorities is needed, especially the people's awareness of disease prevention./.

Tu Thanh - Thu Hien