Hand-foot-mouth disease spreads throughout Vietnam

Via Xinhua :

" Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) is spreading throughout all 63 Vietnamese cities and provinces, getting more than 71,470 people affected, of whom 130 were dead, as of Monday, local Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper reported.

While HFMD is expanding across the country, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MOH) has not yet declared it as an "epidemic" because it is still under "control", said the report.

Nguyen Van Binh, director of MOH Preventive Medicines Department, said the disease is under control when there are about 2,000 newly affected cases per week, or 8,000-10,000 cases per month.

However, in September alone, the country had more than 26,000 newly affected HFMD patients with 31 dead, and in the first half of October, the figures were reported at 10,000 and 16, respectively, said the report.

So far, southern Ho Chi Minh City and central Quang Ngai province are the most hit localities."