A further 172 victims of acute diarrhea in eleven northern cities and provinces were admitted to hospitals yesterday, taking the total number of infected cases to 1,400 nationwide, reported by the Treatment Department of the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Despite a slight reduction in those afflicted in Ha Noi, Hai Duong and Hai Phong, incidence continues to rise in the surrounding provinces even in the face of disinfection and other preventative measures, said Ministry of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu.
Recent investigations have warned that pathogens blamed for the outbreak have now been found not only in lightly-cooked foods but also in well-cooked and ready-made foods.
Institute of Epidemic Prevention Director Dr. Nguyen Tran Hieu reckoned water supplies in some epidemic-stricken cities and provinces may become contaminated with the pathogens.
Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu proposed plastic gloves should be distributed free of charge to food sellers in epidemic-stricken provinces and cities to ensure food hygiene and safety.
The MoH also issued a regulation yesterday giving guidance on destroying shrimp paste. Sales of shrimp paste will also be banned and shrimp paste will be seized and destroyed in epidemic-stricken areas until the epidemic ends.
Another factor making control of the epidemic more difficult is emigration from high-risk areas to epidemic-free zones. Thai Binh Province, for example, is now coping with three high-risk areas, two said to have developed due people moving there from Ha Noi, the other due to movements from Ha Tay.
Kien, a local young laborer from Thai Binh, for instance, went to Ha Noi seeking work as an unskilled worker. He caught acute diarrhea while there and was treated at Dong Da Hospital. But when Kien left the hospital and returned to Thai Binh, it turned out he had not yet fully shed the infectious bacteria and his mother became infected.
Notably, 48 patients have been reported to have left the National Infectious and Tropical Institute without permission, two from Bach Mai Hospital.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health announced yesterday there have 51 cases of diarrhea reported in the city since the Ha-Noi-centered epidemic began. But they are reported to be normal cases, unrelated to the pathogen ravaging the north.
In an effort to prevent the epidemic spreading to HCMC, the city’s Department of Health reported yesterday it had seized dozens of kilos of shrimp paste of unknown origin from various local markets.
