Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease that preys on young and malnourished children, has claimed ten lives out of to 84 reported cases in Son La province since the beginning of this year. Lau Say Chu, Director of the Son La provincial Department of Health, said the onset of the disease shows initial symptoms of high fever, headache, feeling sick, vomiting, seizures, conscious disorder and coma. The disease is dangerous because of its high fatality rate. However, children who manage to survive are often left without the ability to communicate because of brain damage and spend their lives staring listlessly, unable to recognize friends they played with just weeks before. Doctors at the provincial general hospital said most fatalities are due to parents’ failure to take their child to hospital when they first came down with a high fever and parents failing to get their child vaccinated. The provincial health sector has issued a warning to parents that all children under five years of age should be vaccinated to guard against the deadly and debilitating disease. When children have a high fever of unknown causes, they should immediately be taken to hospital, it also cautioned. Meanwhile, the local health sector reported 3,000 cases of flu, nearly 1,200 cases of diarrhea, 71 cases of measles, and 12 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease in July. The province has directed relevant agencies to disseminate information about preventive measures against summer diseases to protect local people’s health, especially for ethnic minority people in remote areas. (Vov.vn Aug 1)
