First death of A/H1N1 influenza reported in Hanoi

The Ministry of Health confirmed on October 25 the first death of the A/H1N1 influenza in Hanoi as a female was reported to die of the disease on October 21.

This is the 32 nd fatal case in the country and the 8 th pregnant woman who died of the disease.

The female, 21, in Can Kiem commune, Thach That district, was in her sixth month of pregnancy.

She was hospitalised on October 15 with symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat. On October 20, she was transferred from local hospital to the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Disease because of respiratory distress and was treated with Tamiflu but she could not escape from her fate.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Hospitals, agencies to ensure free heart surgery for kids

All Ho Chi Minh City heart patients under six years old will continue to receive free medical treatment no matter how expensive it is, Dr. Luu Thi Thanh Huyen from the city’s Social Insurance Agency said on October 24.

Children wait for examinations at Pediatrics Hopital No.1.

Sai Gon Giai Phong recently reported some city hospitals were continuing to charge fees for surgery carried out on children with heart defects.

The local Social Insurance Agency subsequently said it would step in to ensure rules weren’t being violated.

Dr. Huyen, from the Health Insurance’s Payment Survey Division, said that because the cost of some medicines and equipment were not officially listed as part of the free treatment program, hospitals were forced to charge extra fees.

Hospitals and the Social Insurance Office need to work with authorities to make a list of expenses not currently covered under the free treatment plan, Dr. Huyen said.

City Social Insurance Office officials said they collaborated with the Pediatrics Hopital No.1 and Cho Ray Hospital to resolve the issue.

In the near future, they will also work with the Tu Du and Tumor hospitals to ensure families are not charged for their child’s heart operations or follow-up treatment.

 

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Local medical equipment industry plagued with problems

Vietnam’s medical-equipment manufacturing industry is struggling due to a lack of qualified technicians, poor cooperation among departments, and a heavy reliance on foreign-made goods, experts say.

Vietnam currently produces only basic medical equipment like beds and pumps

Cao Van Diem, deputy head of the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction, said 30 years ago, the country had just one medical manufacturing company, Thai Nguyen Medical Equipment.

With nearly 1,000 hospitals and healthcare centers and a growing demand for modern medical equipment, the country now has 50 medical equipment manufacturers and trading firms.

However, the 50 firms only make around 600 types of basic, low-quality items including hand-held tools, beds, pumps, IV tubes, and autoclaves used for sterilizing equipment.

In recent years, some companies have begun manufacturing more complex devices like laser therapy apparatuses, high-frequency electric operation knives, and medical waste incinerators. However, only a few firms have taken such initiatives while the quality of the equipment is low.

A shortage of qualified engineers and technicians is partly to blame, experts say. The country has just 6 percent of the needed engineers and 35 percent of technicians necessary for Vietnam to efficiently produce its own medical equipment.

In addition, the domestic medical equipment industry has done a poor job of communicating with other sectors, slowing its progression.

A preference for foreign-made goods also works against the local manufacturing trade.

According to the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction, Vietnam imports 80 percent of its medical equipment including basic items like needles and thread.

The local healthcare industry spends hundreds of billions of Vietnam dong annually to import medical equipment, with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City investing heavily in new foreign technology.

A city hospital director said his clinic was equipped with several state-of-the-art machines including X-ray computed tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and gamma knife radiation, but said it was unfortunate that none of it was domestically made.

In the past, Vietnam also relied heavily on foreign-made medicines, but today, nearly 50 percent of the country’s pharmaceuticals are locally made with a push to eventually satisfy all domestic demand.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

US swine flu deaths surpass 1,000

More Americans have been vaccinated against seasonal flu this fall than ever before by this time of year, federal health officials said Friday.

Sixty million people have gotten the winter flu vaccine — probably because they’re paying more attention to flu warnings in general, thanks to swine flu. It’s an unprecedented number of seasonal flu shots for October; most usually aren’t given until later in the fall.

Part of it is due to supply: There are already 85 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine available, a much larger amount than usual for this early in the fall. Most years, roughly 100 million doses are used during the season.

But a big factor probably is that swine flu — also known as the 2009 H1N1 virus — is drawing attention to public health warnings that seasonal flu is also a deadly illness that can be prevented through vaccinations, said Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There’s been a heightened awareness in the American public due to H1N1 this year,” said Quimby.

Meanwhile, swine flu is more widespread now than it’s ever been, and has resulted in more than 1,000 U.S. deaths so far. Flu illnesses are as widespread now as they are at the winter peak of normal flu seasons, said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.

“Many millions” of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate he gave at a Friday press conference. The government doesn’t test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn’t have an exact count.

Frieden updated some other estimates, too, saying there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

Nearly 100 swine flu deaths in children have been reported, CDC officials also said.

Forty-six states now have widespread flu activity. The only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and South Carolina. There are at least two different types of flu causing illnesses; tests from about 5,000 patients suggest that nearly all the flu cases are swine flu.

This year’s seasonal flu vaccine won’t protect against swine flu; a separate swine flu vaccine is needed. Vaccine production takes several months, and the work on seasonal vaccine was already well under way when swine flu was first identified in April. It was too late for the swine flu virus to be included in the seasonal doses.

Because of swine flu production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine doses would be available by mid-October. As of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor’s offices and other providers across the country, CDC officials said.

“It’s frustrating to all of us. We wish there were more vaccine available,” Frieden said.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn’t been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained. “Even if you yell at them, they don’t grow faster,” Frieden said.

He added that 5 million new doses became available in the past week, and vaccine should be more plentiful soon.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Seven more die from swine flu in Vietnam

The death toll from A/H1N1 influenza in Vietnam has risen to 31 after seven more fatalities were confirmed from October 16-22, local health officials said.

A doctor  is examing a child who has contracted the swine flu ( Photo: VNA)

On October 23, four more deaths were reported including two pregnant women, a child, and a woman in her forties, said Dr. Nguyen Huy Nga, chief of the health ministry’s Preventive Medicine and Environment Department.

The General Hospital in the central province of Phu Yen confirmed the death of a 25-year-old pregnant woman from Phu Hoa District. The 16-week pregnant woman was hospitalized and tested positive for the A/H1N1 flu.

Doctors said she had a preexisting heart condition and died on October 20.

The same day, a 48-year-old woman from the Highlands province of Gia Lai died after contracting swine flu. Health officials said she suffered from a preexisting blood disease.

Another pregnant woman, a 24-year-old from the Highlands province of Gia Lai, was taken to Cao Su Hospital on October 10 with a high fever. She was later transferred to the province’s General Hospital with a diagnosis of severe pneumonia caused by the A/H1N1 virus. The seven-month pregnant woman died on October 21.

A two-year-old girl with genetic heart disease from the Highlands province of Lam Dong was also confirmed to have died after contracting the A/H1N1 virus. She died at the Children Hospital 1 on October 22.

According to the Ministry of Health, two more children and an adult suffering from a chronic disease also died between October 16-22.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Dengue fever sees nationwide resurgence

The Ministry of Health said October 24 that within the last month, 55 out of 63 provinces in Vietnam recorded 17,140 cases of dengue fever with 14 deaths.

Dengue patients at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has seen over 74,242 dengue cases, an increase of 16.8 percent over the same period last year. Of the total, 58 have died, six less compared to last year.

Hanoi has seen the highest increase of people infected in the country with 8,000 patients so far this year, 15 times higher than last year. It is also the capital city’s
worst dengue outbreak in the past 10 years.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Experts to examine kids allergic to Dutch Lady milk

Experts from Hanoi will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City to examine five children who allegedly suffered allergic reactions after drinking Dutch Lady Vivinal GOS milk made by FrieslandCampina Vietnam, a deputy head of the Vietnam Food Administration said on October 21.

Mr. Hoang Thuy Tien said the experts from the National Institute of Nutrition, Bach Mai Hospital, and the administration would try to discover the cause of the allergic reaction.

The city’s Preventive Medicine Center has  taken milk samples for testing, according to center deputy director Nguyen Dac Tho.

FrieslandCampina Vietnam has claimed that there is no scientific evidence linking the children’s condition with its milk.

Related article:
HCMC health officials investigate Dutch Lady’s dodgy milk

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Ministry plans to vaccinate high-risk people against swine flu

The Ministry of Health has drafted three alternative plans to vaccinate people in high-risk groups against swine flu, a health official said October 21.

Children receiving treatment for swine flu at Saint Paul Hospital in Hanoi on October 16 ( Photo : VNA)

Dr. Nguyen Huy Nga, chief of the ministry’s Preventive Medicine and Environment Department, told delegates at a meeting of the A/H1N1 flu prevention steering board in Hanoi that one of the plans would be approved by the Government.

The first will see the inoculation carried out in 10 densely populated provinces and cities that have suffered widespread outbreaks of the flu. Around 900,000 people will receive the shots.

The second envisages covering 1.5 million people in 20 provinces and cities.

The last, an ambitious one, will see high-risk groups in all 63 provinces and cities getting the vaccine.

But the ministry has not spelled out a time frame for these plans.

People with heart diseases, respiratory diseases like asthma, diabetes, and cancer, pregnant women and obese people are among the groups considered to be at high risk of serious complications from influenza.

The vaccine will also be administered to health workers and older people.

The steering board said it has bought vaccines and the World Health Organization has promised to provide over one million doses in 2010.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Ut, deputy head of the Danang Department of Health, said on the same day that a 20-month-old baby had died of swine flu in the central city October 20.

Nguyen Hoang Nhu An of Hai Chau District had suffered from high fever and cough since October 12.

She was admitted to a private clinic before being taken with breathing failure to the province general hospital on October 14. Doctors immediately gave her Tamiflu but to no avail and she died later.

Tests done by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology confirmed she had swine flu.

Her nine-year-old brother also had high fever, cough, and sore throat but he recovered following treatment at a private clinic.

The child’s death took the total number of fatalities in Vietnam to 25.

As of October 20 the Ministry of Health had received confirmed reports of 10,267 cases.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

HCMC authorities test imported dried fruits, bleached eggs

Jams and dried fruits imported from China being sold at Binh Tay Market in HCMC’s District 6. Authorities are testing them for lead content. (Photo: SGTT)

Following fears that Chinese jams and dried plums contain lead and eggs are bleached to sell as free-range, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health began an investigation October 22.

It ordered the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Customs Department, and the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 to provide details of importers of jams and dried plums and other fruits from China and the quantity of imports.

In the wake of public concern that Chinese –made jams and dried fruits contain heavy metals like lead that will cause chronic diseases, health officials have been ordered to closely monitor them.

Meantime, a team of health workers has been formed to check  food hygiene and safety. The team along with officials from the Department of Animal Health and Market Management went around city markets to check imported eggs and look for bleached eggs and took samples for tests.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Eggs test negative for bleach, quality remains dubious: Hanoi officials

An investigation has cleared most vendors in Hanoi suspected of selling industrial eggs as “free-range,” though authorities say most of the eggs are of unknown origin and consumers should be wary.

Recent media reports had suggested that market-sold eggs in the capital were being bleached to give the appearance they were “Garden Fresh,” allowing traders to sell them at higher prices.

Health officials collected egg samples from the vendors and have determined that most were not subjected to bleaching, though they lacked documentation of health and safety checks.

A large number of the eggs were imported from China through Lang Son and Mong Cai border gates in northern Quang Ninh Province, they added.

It is difficult to distinguish between domestic eggs and imported eggs.

A trader from Long Bien market, Hanoi said the price of Chinese eggs is cheaper than Vietnamese ones by up to 40 percent.

The city’s Department of Health said officials returned 6,000 eggs to traders in Dong Anh, Hanoi who were able to provide proof of the eggs’ origin. The rest will be discarded, the department said. 

Hoang Thi Thang, deputy head of Hanoi’s Veterinary Department, said that legally, poultry eggs from domestic farms are required to undergo health and safety tests before being sold in markets. However, the department was unable to effectively monitor the quality of imported eggs, she said.

Most people are unable to distinguish between domestic eggs and imported eggs, Thang added. Authorities, therefore, have a difficult time controlling the number of eggs smuggled into Hanoi markets.

Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the Livestock Breeding Department, said eggs without health and safety documentation or proof of origin were likely smuggled.

Son added that authorities need to step up efforts at border gates to stop smuggling.

According to To Long Thanh, deputy director of the Central Institute for Veterinary Diagnosis, because of the difficulty in visually distinguishing safe eggs from unsafe ones, consumers should insist on buying eggs of clear origin from reputable sources only.

 

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share