Quarantine area for treatment of diphtheria patients in Central Highlands General Hospital in Dak Lak Province.

The cases from Krong No District have been quarantined and treated at two local health facilities.

The first three patients, aged from 9 to 15, had been given three doses of a combination vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

From June 3 to 6, the patients studying together at the local social support centre had symptoms of fever, sore throat and vomiting.

Test results of the Central Highlands Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that patients were positive for diphtheria, which is caused by a type of bacteria called Corynebacterium diphtheria.

Three patients are being treated at the Central Highlands General Hospital. Their health is stable with a negative result from the second test.

The fourth patient, 66, is the grandmother of the above three patients. She had close contact with one of her grandsons when they returned home but she did not show symptoms. She was supplied with preventive medicine and tested.

The patient is being isolated at the local health centre and is in a stable condition.

Her second test also was negative.

According to the provincial Centre for Disease Control, the disease is basically under control.

However, it is forecast to be complicated because this is the first stage of the disease and other people could have had close contact with the infected cases, the centre said.

Dak Nong Province's health sector has co-ordinated with the Central Highlands Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to disinfect the environment in places where cases of diphtheria were reported and places at risk.

About 435 people at the social support centre were also provided with medicine for disease prevention.

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, the infection usually affects children, but adults can be infected if their immune systems are weak. The condition is easily spread through person-to-person contact or through contact with objects that have the bacteria on them, such as cups or used tissues.  VNS

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