Thanh Hoa announced the end of diphtheria epidemic

The decision to declare the end of the diphtheria epidemic in Muong Lat town, Muong Lat district, was signed by Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee Do Minh Tuan on the morning of August 23. According to Acting Director of the Department of Health Nguyen Ba Can, since August 7, the day the last two positive cases of the outbreak were discovered in Doan Ket Quarter, Muong Lat town, no other cases have been recorded so far.

Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee announced a diphtheria epidemic in Muong Lat town on August 11, aiming to implement measures to prevent the disease from spreading widely in the community and focus on vaccination to improve immunity.

"According to regulations, after 14 days from the announcement of the epidemic, if the locality does not record any new cases, it is eligible to declare the end of the epidemic," said Mr. Can. The health sector continues to implement measures to monitor diphtheria such as monitoring recovered people, close contacts (F1), and vaccination.

On August 5, the Thanh Hoa Center for Disease Control (CDC) detected the first case of diphtheria in a 17-year-old pregnant woman. Three days later, two people, a 10-year-old boy and a 74-year-old woman, relatives of the pregnant woman, also tested positive. Doan Ket neighborhood was the first diphtheria outbreak of the year in Thanh Hoa province, with a chain of infections of 3 cases, but the source of infection for the first patient has not been determined. Thanh Hoa is also the first locality in the country to announce a diphtheria outbreak in many years.

All three patients have now recovered, returned home to continue to quarantine for 21 days (from the time of onset of the disease) and be monitored for another two months before all activities return to normal. 34 F1s are also in stable health, with no unusual developments. Nearly 800 people have been given prophylactic antibiotics, mainly residents and staff participating in epidemic prevention. About 1,000 doses of Td vaccine have been injected into people in high-risk areas.

Diphtheria is a dangerous infectious disease, capable of causing epidemics, transmitted directly from sick people to healthy people through the respiratory tract, intermediate objects. The incubation period is about two weeks before starting to infect others. The main symptom of the disease is sore throat, with a white pseudomembrane due to inflamed cells adhering to the throat.

The Ministry of Health warned in July that diphtheria has not been eliminated in our country, and people can still get the disease if they have not been vaccinated and come into contact with the pathogen. Since the beginning of the year, the country has recorded 5 cases of diphtheria, including one death, an 18-year-old female student in Nghe An.