A child is treated at Children’s Hospital 1 in HCM City for a respiratory disorder. VNA/VNS.Photo Phương Vy

HCM CITY— Many private health clinics and public hospitals in HCM City are crowded with child patients, most of whom have respiratory disorders.

Dr Trần Anh Tuấn, head of respiratory diseases department at the city Children’s Hospital 1, told Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper that the department had more than 400 child patients, but had only 140 beds, so many patients had to share a bed.

Sixty to seventy per cent of the 400 children are from other provinces and cities, according to Tuấn, and 70 per cent are under 12 months old. Most of them have bronchitis or pneumonia.

The hospital’s examination rooms for outpatients are also crowded, with many patients suffering from inflammation in the upper respiratory tract.

Huỳnh Minh Thu, head of general planning department at the Children’s Hospital 2, said the hospital had also seen an increase in the number of children with respiratory diseases.

According to Tuấn, changing weather and continuous rains have caused the increase in respiratory disorders. Children with asthma can especially be affected.

If children are lethargic or are under 2 months old and stop feeding or consume less than a half of the normal amount of milk, they need to be taken to the emergency room immediately.

Children aged more than 2 months who have convulsions and are vomiting also should be brought to hospitals, as well as those with other symptoms such as cyanosis.

If they have difficulty breathing or have rapid and shallow breathing, or feel breathless even when resting, they may have pneumonia, so they need to go to the hospital.

If children have a high fever of over 39 degrees C for two days or more, they should be brought to a hospital. Besides respiratory diseases, other diseases like dengue fever and viral fever are breaking out now.

If children have a cough that does not go away for more than seven days, or they are coughing up mucus or blood, they should also be taken to the hospital. VNS