Hanoi records 1 measles death, number of cases skyrocketed in the past week

According to the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC), last week, the city recorded 182 cases of measles, including 1 death.

The deceased was a girl born in 2021 (44 months old) in Nam Tu Liem district, with no history of measles vaccination. The child's illness began on March 10, and on March 15, she developed a rash. On March 17, the child had difficulty breathing and was taken to the National Children's Hospital for treatment by her family.

The patient's condition worsened and he was treated intensively (ventilator, blood filtration, ECMO), but his condition did not improve. The child died on March 18 with a diagnosis of irreversible shock/multiple organ failure/pneumonia ARDS - cytokine storm on the background of measles.

Thus, this is the first measles death in Hanoi since the beginning of the year.

According to the Hanoi CDC, from the beginning of 2025 to now, Hanoi has recorded 1,058 measles cases in 30/30 districts, towns, and 1 death, a high increase compared to the same period in 2024 (in the same period in 2024, Hanoi had no measles cases).

Measles patients were distributed by specific age groups: 117 cases under 6 months (11.1%); 151 cases 6 - 8 months (14.3%); 113 cases 9 - 11 months (10.7%), 238 cases 1 - 5 years old (22.5%), 164 cases 6 - 10 years old (15.5%), 275 cases over 10 years old (26.0%).

The leader of the Hanoi CDC said that the number of measles cases this week continued to increase compared to last week, mainly in people who were not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. There have been deaths in children who were not vaccinated, and it is forecasted that there will continue to be cases in the coming time.

Next week, districts will continue to review and accelerate the progress of measles vaccination for children of regular vaccination age and children subject to campaign vaccination, focusing on children aged 6 to under 9 months and children aged 1-10 who have not received 2 doses of measles vaccine. Vaccination will be organized continuously on all days of the week, achieving a progress rate of 95% or more before March 31, 2025.

At the same time, the Health sector strengthens coordination with the Education sector in monitoring, preventing, and handling measles cases and outbreaks in schools; coordinates the implementation of vaccination in schools, as well as reviewing and disseminating information to parents to ensure their children are fully vaccinated according to regulations.

When there are cases of measles in schools, the organization reviews the children's vaccinations to vaccinate children who have not been vaccinated to prevent the disease in time. Units continue to monitor and detect patients at decentralized medical facilities and in the community, to promptly investigate and handle cases and outbreaks, and prevent the disease from spreading widely.

In addition, units organize activities to monitor suspected measles rash fever, conduct epidemiological investigations, collect samples for testing of 100% of suspected cases, organize zoning, and thoroughly handle areas with patients and outbreaks according to regulations.

The health sector also strengthens information and propaganda about the epidemic situation and measures to prevent measles; propagates people to proactively get vaccinated fully and on schedule and respond to additional vaccination campaigns deployed by the health sector.