A doctor checks the health of a diphtheria patient. The total number of diphtheria cases in Dak Nong Province has reached 28 as of July 9 - PHOTO: VNA

Dang Thanh, director of the Dak Nong Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Dak Nong), confirmed that the province has seen eight outbreaks of the contagious disease in three districts -- Krong No, Dak Glong and Dak R’lap -- as of July 8. The total number of infected cases has reached 28, with two deaths recorded in Dak Glong.

The provincial health authorities inspected the eighth outbreak at Bu Ndoh hamlet in Dak R’lap District’s Dak Wer Commune, with three positive cases being reported.

Health care workers checked the health of people suspected of having an infection and collected their samples for testing. Over 300 Bu Ndoh residents have been quarantined for seven days.

Quarantine checkpoints were set up along the roads leading to the Dak Wer Commune to prevent the spread of the disease. Residents of the affected areas have been provided with essential food items during the quarantine period, stated Nguyen Ngoc Quan, chairman of the commune.

Quan added that the commune has proactively taken steps to cope with the disease but the higher authorities have yet to issue guidelines on setting up checkpoints and implementing quarantine measures to combat the disease at the site.

Given the complicated development of the infectious respiratory disease, the commune proposed that the affected areas should be quarantined completely, similar to that during the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure the disease does not spread further, Quan noted.

Responding to this proposal, the director of CDC Dak Nong stressed that complete isolation to cope with the disease was unnecessary as diphtheria was categorized as a Type B infectious disease. He added that preventive medicines and vaccines against the disease are available. SGT