Measles have been recorded in 43 out of 64 provinces and cities nationwide with 664 patients were reported since early this month, particularly localities in southern region, according to the Ministry of Health.

Health experts have taken precautions to prevent epidemics and diseases that frequently occur in the first three months of the year during the humid weather and crowded festivals.

A total of 114 cases of measles were recorded in Hà Nội since the start of 2019, the city’s Health Department reported.    

Thirty-two cases of measles were recorded in Hà Nội in the first three weeks of 2019, mostly children who were under five years old and had not been fully vaccinated.

Parents have delayed taking their nine-month-old children to healthcare facilities for measles vaccinations because of insufficient counselling from hospitals and doctors at vaccination centres.

The food market to serve the Tết (Lunar New Year) festival is bustling with various kinds of products to meet increasing public demand but also poses high risks of unsafe food or violations in food safety and hygiene.

Hospitals in HCM City and Hà Nội are admitting dozens of patients with measles each week, many of them pregnant women and children.

Typhoon Usagi, which weakened into a tropical depression over the weekend, hit HCM City hard on Sunday, damaging electrical cables, stranding cars on streets, and flooding basements.

Infectious diseases with the highest number of patients were those related to clean water and environmental hygiene, said associate professor Nguyễn Thị Liên Hương, director of the Health Environment Management Agency under the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are classified as upper respiratory tract infections (URIs), from the nostrils to the vocal cords in the larynx, including the sinuses and the middle ear, or lower respiratory tract infections (LRIs), from the trachea and bronchi to the lungs.