HCM CITY — With the onset of the hand, foot and mouth disease season, parents should take preventive measures like frequently washing hands, a senior HCM City paediatrician has said.

Speaking to the media on August 9 Dr Trương Hữu Khanh, head of the infectious and nervous diseases department at the city’s Paediatrics Hospital 1, said more and more children were being brought to the hospital with the disease.

Now it was treating 50 inpatients every day compared to 20 normally, he said.

Many of the 50 cases were severe, with one of them put on a breathing machine.

Đoàn Kim Thái of the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang, whose 13-year-old daughter has the disease and is getting treatment at the hospital, told Tri Thức Trẻ online newspaper that she had had fever for seven days.

She was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but three days ago got convulsions.

Thái was worried and asked the hospital to transfer her to a HCM City hospital.

She said several children in her neighbourhood had the disease.

According to the city Preventive Health Centre, the city recorded 168 cases of hand, foot, and mouth disease last week, 11 per cent higher than average in the last four weeks.

Khanh said outbreaks would continue to rise until November.

If children have high fever for two days, vomit and have convulsions, they should be taken to hospital, he said.

Children less than a year old are more severely affected than older ones, according to the doctor.

After a day or two of the fever painful sores could develop in the mouth, and children refuse to eat anything or get red spots on their skin.

These symptoms are often mistaken for other illnesses such as sore throat.

The disease could cause complications like encephalitis or lung inflammation if not treated in time, Khanh warned. — VNS