Parents need to know the complications of measles to take their children to the hospital.

According to the National Children's Hospital, on average, the hospital examines and screens about 70-90 measles cases per day, with peak days reaching more than 100 patients. In the first 3 months of 2025, the hospital received 1,894 measles cases (more than double the number in 2024). Up to 60% of measles cases admitted to the hospital were unvaccinated or under the recommended age for vaccination.

The National Children's Hospital has about 2,000 inpatients, standard isolation rooms are limited, inpatients are often seriously ill and have many underlying diseases, long hospital stays, high risk of measles...

Faced with the rapid increase in measles patients coming for examination and hospitalization, the National Children's Hospital organized the flow of suspected measles cases from the examination area, and reserved the Tropical Disease Center to admit and treat measles patients.

The National Children's Hospital is treating many patients with measles.

As a leading place in the treatment of infectious diseases, doctors at the Center for Tropical Diseases have relied on the actual pathology of each child patient to diagnose the case earlier in the actual conditions of the measles epidemic, not waiting for the rash to appear to identify measles and isolate and treat early.

To prevent and avoid infection, the Center for Tropical Diseases has organized triage and has a separate measles clinic to quickly identify and treat severe patients. In addition to the number of children with severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, a large number of children with measles are assigned to outpatient treatment to reduce hospital overload.

Dr. Cao Viet Tung, Deputy Director of the National Children's Hospital, said that in mild cases of measles, care can be taken at home. The family needs to be carefully advised by a doctor on how to reduce fever, care for eyes, nose, mouth, nutrition, etc. Patients with measles need to maintain personal hygiene by bathing daily with warm water and avoiding drafts to prevent infection.

When treating children at home as outpatients, to avoid serious complications, Dr. Nguyen Thien Hai, Deputy Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases, National Children's Hospital said: Children at home are often better cared for in terms of nutrition, hygiene, and avoiding cross-infection with diseases that other measles patients are infected with. However, parents need to pay attention, with children under 1 - 2 years old, especially those with underlying diseases, there is always a risk of serious complications. Easily recognized complications are continuous high fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, lethargy, difficulty breathing, and need to immediately take the child to the hospital.

In addition to eye complications and pneumonia, children with measles can experience other complications such as encephalitis, myocarditis, diarrhea, and digestive problems.

Dr. Hai also gave quite important information, that is, when a child is exposed to measles within 3 days, the vaccine can still be given because it is still effective.

Doctors also recommend that from the end of 2024, the Ministry of Health has expanded the scope of measles vaccination from 6 months of age and then 2 subsequent injections as recommended for children in epidemic areas.

Therefore, parents need to vaccinate their children against measles on schedule so that they have active immunity. In this weather, children also need to be aware of many other infectious diseases such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and dengue fever.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/cha-me-can-biet-bien-chung-cua-benh-soi-de-dua-con-toi-vien-i763396/