Bad weather causes spike in children attending hospitals

Unusual changes between hot and cold weather, coupled with rains and high humidity has created conditions for the development of diseases in children, according to doctors.

Most of the children have been hospitalised for diseases relating to respiratory problems like bronchitis and pneumonia, digestive ailments or dengue fever.

The Hà Nội-based National Hospital of Pediatrics has received around 3,500 children for health check-ups and treatment each day over the past week, according to Head of the hospital’s Health Check-up Department Trương Thúy Vinh.

The figure represents an increase of 500-1,000 children compared to an average day.

“Unusual changes in weather conditions have caused many children to suffer from diseases relating to respiratory problems. There were days when 70-80 per cent of children that I checked had respiratory problems,” said Nguyễn Thị Mai Hoàn, deputy head of the hospital’s Respiratory Disease Department.

When the weather changed, children, especially those with weak immune systems, were more likely to catch respiratory diseases, she said.

“The respiratory department is always overloaded on these days, forcing us to make use of spaces along corridors and between patients’ rooms to place some beds and baby cots for the kids, but some children still had to share beds,” she said.

Director of the Hà Nội’s Preventive Health Centre, Nguyễn Nhật Cảm, warned that there was a high risk of outbreaks of these diseases if no measures were taken by authorised agencies, hospitals and the local people.

Meanwhile, in HCM City, apart from the risks of spreading of dengue fever and Zika virus, hospitals have also had to continue dealing with respiratory diseases and hand-foot-mouth disease.

The municipal Health Department reported that 84 children were hospitalised for hand-foot-mouth disease last week, 12 per cent more than the figure for the whole past month. It brings the total number of patients with hand-foot-mouth disease to 952.

In the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang, the number of children being hospitalised also increased as a result of the prolonged hot weather. Most of them suffered from respiratory diseases, dengue fever, diarrhea and hand-foot-mouth disease.

The Tiền Giang Hospital admitted more than 100 children each day for such diseases, said director of the provincial Health Department Trần Thanh Thảo.

The province recorded nearly 600 cases of dengue fever and 140 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease by the end of March, Thảo said.