The intravenous drug used to treat severe hand, foot and mouth disease in children has run out at children's hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. Meanwhile, the most severe strain of the virus causing hand, foot and mouth disease has "reappeared".

Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health announced that it has established a team of experts to support consultations on severe cases of hand, foot and mouth disease in the area. The above children's hospitals have prepared equipment, blood filtration treatment, ECMO... and medicines according to the protocol.

At the same time, the Department of Health has sent a document to the Ministry of Health and the Drug Administration to support the supply of adequate treatment drugs, especially two types of drugs: intravenous Phenobarbital and intravenous Gamma Globulin. The document was sent to proactively respond when the situation of hand, foot and mouth disease in Ho Chi Minh City is complicated.

According to research, intravenous Phenobarbital is used to treat children with hand, foot and mouth disease from level 2B and more severe. This drug is currently in short supply not only at Children's Hospital 1 and Children's Hospital 2 but almost nationwide. Doctors are forced to switch to oral medication, but the effectiveness is not as good as intravenous medication.

A source said that 2-3 years ago, the shortage of this medicine was warned, and hospitals shared it with each other for use.

According to Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, former head of the Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City, this year could be a stressful season for hand, foot and mouth disease.

Gene sequencing results in some cases showed that Enterovirus 71 (EV71) had returned. This is a very worrying situation because EV71 is a strain of the virus that causes severe hand, foot and mouth disease, which can easily cause complications in young children. On the evening of May 31, a 5-year-old boy transferred from the provincial hospital died at Children's Hospital 1, suspected of having stage 4 hand, foot and mouth disease.

In the past 5 months, this hospital has received 1,349 outpatient visits and 158 inpatients for hand, foot and mouth disease. Up to now, statistics show that the number of children with hand, foot and mouth disease has not increased compared to 2022, but the number of severe cases has increased compared to the same period in 2022.

Experts say that this year's "stressful" hand, foot and mouth disease may be due to the reappearance of the EV71 virus strain, the phenomenon of medical staff "forgetting their lesson" or parents subjectively bringing their children to the hospital late...