A 4-year-old girl died of whooping cough in Dong Nai

On January 4, the Dong Nai Province Center for Disease Control announced that a 4-year-old girl had just died from whooping cough.

The patient was identified as NTYN, 4 years old, residing in Ho Nai 3 commune, Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province. This is the first case of death from whooping cough in Dong Nai in 2025.

According to a report from the Dong Nai Province Center for Disease Control, on December 19, 2024, baby N. showed signs of coughing but the family still let him stay home with his mother. Four days later, the baby was still coughing, so the family took him to Dong Nai Children's Hospital for examination, gave him medicine to take home and monitor him.

On December 25, 2024, baby N. coughed a lot and had increasing difficulty breathing. The family took the baby to Dong Nai Children's Hospital for examination. The doctor admitted the baby for monitoring and diagnosed him with acute leukemia/severe bronchial asthma/sepsis/whooping cough monitoring.

The child was then transferred to Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City for monitoring. Here, the child was tested and diagnosed with whooping cough.

The baby continued to be treated, however, due to her very serious condition, on January 1, 2025, the girl died with a diagnosis of whooping cough.

Through epidemiological investigation, authorities recorded information from the family showing that before the onset of the disease, the girl stayed at home with her mother and did not go to school or attend any local daycare group.

After birth, baby N. received two doses of tuberculosis and hepatitis B vaccines at the hospital. At home, she had close contact with her father, mother, older sister, newborn sister, and two neighbors in the boarding house.

The patient's family said that due to being busy with work, they did not have time to take their child for vaccinations and did not remember their child's vaccination history.

The family has lost all documents and vaccination records. There is no information about baby N on the vaccination software system.

Immediately after recording the incident, Trang Bom District Medical Center investigated and identified cases in close contact with the patient, especially family members. All of these cases must be treated with a course of antibiotics. Administer pertussis (DPT) vaccine to cases under 6 years old, who have not been fully vaccinated or have not received additional vaccinations. Monitor these cases for 3 weeks. Disinfectant spraying around the patient's house and related areas.

Dong Nai Province Center for Disease Control recommends that Ho Nai 3 Commune Health Station coordinate with Ho Nai 3 Commune People's Committee to strengthen surveillance in the community, especially in areas near the children's homes to detect new cases and cases with unusual health symptoms; disseminate information to close contacts to self-monitor, detect early symptoms of the disease, especially cough lasting at least 2 weeks and immediately notify medical staff.

At the same time, manage local subjects more closely to avoid missing cases of children of vaccination age in the area, especially children moving from other localities.