Measles continue to increase, attacking elderly

A medical worker gives measles vaccination to a child in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Đan Phương

HCM CITY — Since the beginning of this month, the number of measles cases in southern provinces and cities has been increasing, and that growth is expected to continue until the beginning of next year, according to the HCM City Pasteur Institute.

Thuỳ Linh, from Tây Ninh Province, is taking care of her nine-month-old daughter who has measles and is being treated at the Infectious Diseases and Neurology Ward under the HCM City Children's Hospital No 1.

She said that her daughter has been hospitalised for four days.

Before being taken to hospital, her daughter coughed a lot, had a high fever and developed rashes. Linh said that the baby had just received one dose of the six-in-one vaccine.

Kim Lan, who lives in Thủ Đức City, has also been taking care of her son with measles at the HCM City Children's Hospital No 2 for nearly a week.

Before that, her son had a lung infection and was in hospital for a week.

After returning home, he got measles and was treated for another week.

"My baby is only seven months old, so I haven't taken him to get the measles vaccine because I thought he could only be vaccinated at nine months of age. I took my child to get the vaccine according to the schedule but didn't see any announcement from the vaccination centre, so I didn't know that children under nine months old could still get the measles vaccine," Lan said.

Doctor Dư Tuấn Quy, Head of the Infectious Diseases and Neurology Ward at the HCM City Children's Hospital No 1 said that the number of measles cases requiring hospitalisation had increased significantly in recent weeks, from 80 cases to more than 100 cases per week, most of which were transferred from other provinces.

Most of the children coming to hospital have complications associated with measles, mainly pneumonia and enteritis.

Children with normal immune systems have a milder course of the disease, but for children with underlying conditions such as congenital heart disease, nephrotic syndrome or cancer, measles will be severe and can lead to death if not treated promptly.

According to Quy, not only children, but also adults can get measles if they have not been vaccinated.

In particular, pregnant women who are not vaccinated are at risk of serious complications such as miscarriage or stillbirth.

The hospital has in fact recorded a mother who had just given birth but had not been vaccinated and accidentally infected her child at the hospital.

According to the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, in addition to an increase in the number of children with measles, the hospital has also recorded an increase in the number of adult patients with measles.

Since August, the hospital has treated more than 900 measles cases, in which 65-70 per cent are adults.

Currently, the ward has 23 adult measles cases, of which four are severe and require oxygen therapy and some of them have required oxygen therapy for five days.

Vaccination

Doctor Quy said that a worrying issue was that most of the children admitted to the hospital have not been vaccinated or have not received the recommended two doses.

Some parents, especially in rural areas, still have a misconception that measles is a mild disease and does not require vaccination.

About 10-12 per cent of parents still hold anti-vaccination views. Some believe that the measles vaccine can cause autism, while in fact the measles vaccine is a very safe vaccine, with almost no recorded side effects, the medical profession added.

“There are even families where all members did not get vaccinated and all got measles,” said Quy.

Deputy Director of the HCM City Pasteur Institute, Nguyễn Vũ Thượng, who is leading a measles vaccination drive in local areas such as HCM City, Đồng Nai and Bình Dương, says the campaign has achieved a 95 per cent or more success rate.

However, the number of infections is still increasing. This shows that localities have not accurately identified the number of children and invited them to be vaccinated.

Thượng emphasised that in addition to the current measles vaccination campaign, there needed to be effective drives to reach groups of children who had difficulty in accessing vaccines.

Only when this problem is resolved can the epidemic be controlled, otherwise the number of measles cases will continue to soar.

Therefore, local areas need to be more proactive in communicating about vaccinations, especially prioritising high-risk groups and areas.

Lương Chấn Quang, Deputy Head of the Division of Infection Control and Disease Prevention under the HCM City Pasteur Institute said that the issue with screening for vaccinations was the lack of an accurate list of unvaccinated children, as many health stations had not fully updated their data.

Quang proposed comparing the local lists from the screening and the vaccination management software to identify unvaccinated children.

In addition, it is necessary to strengthen coordination between medical facilities, schools and local authorities to ensure that all children eligible for vaccination have timely access to vaccines.

Statistics from the HCM City Pasteur Institute showed that since the beginning of the year, 20 provinces and cities in the southern region have recorded 19,000 measles cases.

The group with the highest number of cases is children aged from one to ten, accounting for about 60 per cent of the total number.

The disease is rising rapidly in many regions, with 46 active outbreaks, with the highest numbers in Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and HCM City. — VNS