Quang Ngai detects 2 cases of whooping cough, urgently preventing the spread of the disease

On the morning of July 22, Deputy Director of the Quang Ngai Department of Health Phan Minh Dan said that the provincial health sector is urgently implementing measures to prevent and control whooping cough, determined not to let the disease spread widely.

In Quang Ngai City, there have been two cases of whooping cough: PTT (over 2 months old), in group 3, Quang Phu ward and D.GP (5 months old), in group 1, Tran Phu ward. Of these, PTT has not been vaccinated against whooping cough. Meanwhile, D.GP has been vaccinated with 1 dose of the "5 in 1" vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, and pneumonia/purulent meningitis caused by Hib bacteria.

According to epidemiological investigation, in early July 2024, both children had symptoms of severe coughing, so their families took them to the Quang Ngai Provincial Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital for treatment.

However, because the two children had a persistent cough that did not improve, the family continued to take the children to the Da Nang Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital for treatment. Here, because they suspected that the children had whooping cough, the hospital took samples and sent them for testing. The results, on July 16, 2024, the Pasteur Institute of Nha.

The page reported that both children tested positive for the bacteria that causes whooping cough.

Immediately afterwards, the Quang Ngai City Medical Center conducted an epidemiological investigation and identified 7 people in close contact with patient T and 17 people in close contact with patient P. Currently, these cases have not shown any signs or symptoms of suspected whooping cough and have been given prophylactic antibiotics (for 7 days) and their health will be monitored for 3 weeks.

Deputy Director of Quang Ngai Department of Health Phan Minh Dan said whooping cough is an acute respiratory infection that often occurs in young children. The disease may start with no fever or a mild fever, with inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, fatigue, loss of appetite and cough. The cough becomes more severe and becomes paroxysmal for 1-2 weeks, lasting 1-2 months or longer.

To proactively prevent and control whooping cough, Deputy Director of Quang Ngai Department of Health Phan Minh Dan recommends that parents pay attention to taking their children to get vaccinated against the disease fully and on schedule.

The first injection is given when the child is 2 months old; the second injection is given 1 month after the first injection; the third injection is given 1 month after the second injection; and the third injection is given when the child is 18 months old.

People need to take other measures well such as regularly washing hands with soap, covering mouths when coughing or sneezing; keeping children's bodies, noses and throats clean every day; ensuring homes, nurseries and classrooms are airy, clean and well-lit; limiting children from going to crowded places, avoiding contact with people with respiratory diseases, especially whooping cough.

“In Quang Ngai, from 2020 to now, there have been no recorded cases of whooping cough. Therefore, as soon as the case was detected, the health sector requested relevant units to drastically implement measures to prevent and control whooping cough such as: Closely monitoring and supervising the epidemic situation, promptly detecting early cases of the disease and suspected cases for isolation, treatment, preventive treatment and timely zoning and handling of outbreaks, in accordance with regulations, in order to control the outbreak and prevent it from spreading in the community,” Mr. Dan added.