According to the National Children's Hospital, since the beginning of the year, more than 1,200 children with hand, foot and mouth disease have visited the hospital, with nearly 500 children having to be hospitalized for treatment, of which 20 - 30% of cases are infected with the EV71 virus strain.
"The two common groups of agents that cause hand, foot and mouth disease are Coxsackie virus A16 (CA16) and Entero virus 71 (EV71). While cases of CA16 infection often have mild symptoms and can be cared for and treated at home, EV71 will cause more severe illness with many dangerous complications such as encephalitis, meningitis, myocarditis, pneumonia, pulmonary edema, respiratory failure, circulatory failure, which can be fatal if not treated promptly," said Dr. Nguyen Van Lam, Director of the Tropical Disease Center of the National Children's Hospital.
Dr. Nguyen Van Lam examines a child with hand, foot and mouth disease
At the Center for Tropical Diseases, among the children with severe hand, foot and mouth disease being treated as inpatients, AN (26 months old, from Bac Giang) was admitted with a high fever that would not go down, many red rashes on the hands, feet and mouth, and frequent startles. The child with hand, foot and mouth disease had complications of encephalitis.
AN's mother shared: at the beginning of the year, her child had hand, foot and mouth disease with symptoms of fever and mouth ulcers, but after a few days of treatment at home, she recovered, so this time the family did not think her child's condition was so serious. Fortunately, thanks to timely treatment, AN is now conscious and ready to be discharged from the hospital.
In the same room with AN was MQ (12 months old from Vinh Phuc). About 2 days before being admitted to the hospital, MQ had a high fever, was fussy, and had a poor appetite, but his parents thought he had a teething fever so they did not take him to the doctor. When the child started to show signs of being startled and vomiting a lot, the family took him to the National Children's Hospital. There, MQ was diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease EV71, with complications of encephalitis.
Do not self-medicate with prescriptions found online.
According to MSc.-MD Do Thi Thuy Nga, Deputy Head of the Department of General Internal Medicine, Tropical Disease Center, National Children's Hospital, two common complications of hand, foot and mouth disease are neurological complications and respiratory and circulatory failure.
"However, this year our department has received more children with neurological complications, the most typical of which is encephalitis. Because families have detected it early, children who are admitted to the hospital are often alert, without much cognitive disturbance, but have signs of being startled, especially at the beginning and end of sleep; in addition, there are signs of tremors in the limbs, staggering gait...", Ms. Nga noted.
Because hand, foot and mouth disease progresses rapidly and unpredictably, when a child is diagnosed with the disease, the family should take the child to a medical facility for advice on care and how to detect severe symptoms, so that treatment can be given promptly. Parents should not research online and then use drugs on their own, as this can make the child's illness worse.
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