Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The reoccurrence of virus Enterovirus 71 (EV71), acommon cause of life-threatening illnesses for hand-foot-mouth (HFMD) patients,has made the disease dangerous and could easily spread into an outbreak, healthexperts have said.

Speaking at the recent online seminar on the abnormaldevelopment of the HFMD hosted by online newspaper Vietnamplus, health expertssaid all six deaths had tested positive for EV71.

HFMD caused by virus EV71 is likely to cause illnessesranging from mild to serious with severe neurological and pulmonarycomplications, respiratory and heart failure that can lead to death. EV71 wasthe virus that caused HFMD outbreak in 2011 with 70,000 cases of infection and150 deaths, they said.

Phan Trong Lan, Director of HCM City’s Pasteur Institute saidthe HFMD was at its peak with more than 53,000 infected patients in the firstnine months of this year.

Although the number of infection decreased compared to thesame period of last year, the amount of deaths rose.

In HCM City’s Children No1 Hospital, the number of patientshospitalised for the disease has increased five times in the past three weeksleaving the hospital overcrowded.

Hanoi-based Vietnam-Cuba Hospital has received eight to tenHFDM patients each day recently.

The number of patients with serious illness stayed high inHCM City, posing the risk of outbreaks if preventive measures were not taken.

Lan said most of the six dead children were due to thedisease were treated at home rather than going to the hospitals when showingsymptoms of infection.  

He said HFMD was commonly caused by the Coxsackie virus (A16)and Enterovirus (EV17).  A16 was mild while EV71 could cause neurologicalcomplications, which was five times higher than other types of virus caused bythe disease.

In the outbreak in 2011, 85 percent of deaths were positivewith the virus.

There was currently no vaccine to protect against HFMD andgoing to hospital for treatment was the best solution to avoid complications ifpatients showed signs of infection.

In reply to questions on preventive measures, Dr Pham Hung,representative of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine, saidthe ministry has issued guidelines on HFMD treatment to all hospitals andhealth clinics nationwide.

It has also asked localities to implement treatment protocolsand ensure sufficient facilities and medicines to minimise cases ofcomplications and mortality.

Nguyen Thi Anh Xuan, head of Vietnam-Cuba Hospital’sPeadiatrics Department said HFMD mainly affected children, especially thoseunder three years old as it was a viral infection transmitted via digestion.

They also recommended preventive measures be carried out atschools to avoid infection among children.-VNS/VNA