Ho Chi Minh City: Detecting a cluster of H1N1 cases that caused 20 students to take unusual sick leave

Specifically, on March 16, the Center for Disease Control of Ho Chi Minh City received a notice from the District 10 Health Center about the unusual increase in the number of students taking sick leave at Vo Truong Toan Primary School˳

Immediately after receiving the information, this center cooperated with Children’s Hospital 1 and District 10 Medical Center to conduct epidemiological investigation and examination˳

In two days, from March 15 to 16, the number of students absent from this primary school increased abnormally˳

A total of 20 students became ill with symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, and vomiting˳ Some students have a fever of up to 39 degrees Celsius˳

Through the examination, the doctors initially suspected that the children had the flu and randomly took 6 samples to test for influenza˳ The test sample was sent to the Pasteur Institute for isolation˳

By March 17, the results showed that 6/6 samples tested positive for influenza A (H1N1)˳ Since March 17, the class has not recorded any new cases of symptoms˳

The Center for Disease Control added that, according to surveillance data in the first months of the year, the city has recorded clusters of respiratory illnesses in schools in Binh Thanh District and recently in District 10˳ The clusters of cases have been confirmed˳ recognized and treated early to help limit the spread˳

In particular, Ho Chi Minh City is in the peak season of respiratory diseases, which are easily spread in a crowded environment˳ Educational institutions need to manage students by taking attendance every day˳

If a teacher detects that a student has an infectious disease or two cases of the same health problem at the same time or an unusual increase in sick leave, it is necessary to immediately notify the local health station and health center to timely handling˳

At the same time, when there is a case where a student is absent for many consecutive days for unknown reasons, the homeroom teacher and the school must actively contact parents to determine if they have an infectious disease˳

In addition, when a cluster of cases is detected at the school, the school continues to monitor the status of students who are absent from illness or have new symptoms daily (including holidays), updating the list of sick students by symptoms˳ evidence, time, class and report to the medical station as prescribed˳

In particular, the health station supports the school’s medical staff in examining and exploiting the symptoms, eating and drinking history of students, and coordinating with the medical center to monitor and monitor the epidemic situation at the school˳ reports to the Centers for Disease Control daily˳

Parents need to take their children to a doctor soon when there are suspicious symptoms and feedback information to the school for management and monitoring˳

“Parents should actively vaccinate their children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as flu, chickenpox, and mumps˳

Vaccination is the most effective preventive measure to reduce the incidence and severity of infectious disease,” the Centers for Disease Control emphasized˳

WHO warns COVID-19 is 10 times more dangerous than H1N1 flu

On April 13, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is 10 times more dangerous than the H1N1 virus, which caused the 2009 global flu pandemic˳