HCM City (VNA) – The A/H1N1 flu casesat Cho Ray hospital in Ho Chi Minh City have been put under control.

At present, the hospital is treating one patientinfected with the virus and using breathing machine aids, while following threeothers suspected.

No new cases were reported in recent days.

From June 11, the hospital received at least 24patients infected with A/H1N1, two of whom died, increasing the total number ofA/H1N1-related fatalities in HCM City from the beginning of 2018 to three.

Doctors said A/H1N1 deaths occur among peoplewith obesity and other chronic diseases like diabetes and kidney failure.

Le Quoc Hung, head of the hospital’s departmentfor tropical diseases, said this was the start of the rainy season andalso the peak of the flu season so the appearance of the A/H1N1 flu wasunderstandable. 

The recent return of the influenza virus in HCMCity has worried many people, but health experts insist that an epidemic isunlikely.

They say if people get vaccinated, the chancesof them falling ill are low.

Head of HCM City Pasteur Institute Phan TrongLan said the number of A/H1N1 patients was higher than previous years becauseof lower vaccination rates.

At present, the vaccination rate againstinfluenza was less than one percent of Vietnam’s population.

He said patients suffering from A/H1N1 flu andseasonal flu would normally recover after a week.

However, he warned that pregnant women, infantsand young children under two years old and old people over 65 were among thegroups at elevated risks of complications arising from flu.

Complications could be fatal without timelytreatment, Lan said.

Doctor Truong Huu Khanh from HCM City Children’sHospital 1 said A/H1N1 flu was infectious but fatalities only happen to thosewho had weak immune systems.

Tests showed that this is the old type of theH1N1 virus that broke out worldwide in 2009 and vaccinations against the virusare successful, according to Khanh.

It could only cause an epidemic if a new typeof virus appeared with a modified structure, he said.-VNA