Determined not to let disease outbreaks occur after floods

On the afternoon of October 11, comrade Dao Hong Lan, member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Health and the working delegation of the Ministry of Health had a working session with Thai Nguyen province on disease prevention and control and ensuring people's health safety. Attending and working with the working delegation were comrades: Trinh Xuan Truong, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Pham Hoang Son, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, leaders of relevant departments, branches and units.

Minister Dao Hong Lan and the Ministry of Health 's working delegation worked with Thai Nguyen province.

According to the report of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Department of Health at the working session, the Department requested its affiliated units to strictly implement the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Health and the Provincial People's Committee on storm and flood response according to the "4 on-site" motto; organize 24/24 emergency care, be ready to receive and treat victims, and ensure adequate medicine and essential medical supplies.

During the flood, medical examination and treatment facilities received over 20,000 patients, of which 449 cases were affected by floods.

Immediately after the flood receded, the province also directed the health sector to synchronously deploy many measures to prevent and control the epidemic. Mobile anti-epidemic teams were activated, on duty 24/7; inspection and supervision of environmental sanitation, water source safety, and food safety were stepped up. Hospitals and medical centers proactively stocked up on medicine and disinfectants, and were ready with emergency plans, examinations, and treatment when situations arose.

Director of the Department of Health Dang Van Huy reported on disease prevention and control and ensuring people's health and safety during the flood season.

To date, the health sector has disinfected and sanitized more than 996,000 square meters of the environment, and provided over 30,000 Aquatab tablets to disinfect water sources. However, despite proactive response, heavy rains and floods have caused flooding and damage to many medical equipment and infrastructure, with an estimated total loss of about 93.3 billion VND...

Speaking at the meeting, Minister Dao Hong Lan expressed her condolences to the people of Thai Nguyen province and medical staff affected by the storm. The Minister praised Thai Nguyen's proactive and flexible spirit in protecting and taking care of people's health, and emphasized the need for the province's health sector not to be subjective or negligent after the storm and flood. After the storm and flood, the risk of epidemics begins, so disease prevention must be one step ahead, with prevention as the key.

The Minister requested strict control of the epidemic situation, especially high-risk diseases such as dengue fever, seasonal flu, hand, foot and mouth disease, digestive diseases and waterborne diseases. Localities must increase propaganda so that people understand, proactively clean the environment, disinfect, sterilize, and prevent outbreaks from occurring. The health sector must maintain a 24/7 on-call regime, strengthen monitoring, early detection, and thoroughly handle outbreaks right at the grassroots level, absolutely not allowing them to spread.

In addition to disease prevention and control, special attention must be paid to ensuring food safety, clean water for daily life and medical care for people in flooded and disadvantaged areas, especially children, pregnant women and the elderly.

Minister Dao Hong Lan assigned units under the Ministry to coordinate and support Thai Nguyen in epidemiological surveillance, testing, providing chemicals, medicines, specialized equipment and training capacity for grassroots medical staff.

In the long term, the Minister suggested that the province review and evaluate the current status of medical facilities at the commune level, especially in areas frequently affected by natural disasters, thereby developing investment plans, strengthening the preventive health system, and improving the capacity to respond quickly when situations arise...

Thai Nguyen Provincial Party Secretary Trinh Xuan Truong speaks at the meeting.

On behalf of the leaders of Thai Nguyen province, the Provincial Party Secretary respectfully thanked the Minister and the working delegation of the Ministry of Health for their concern, sharing, and timely support of medical conditions to help Thai Nguyen have more conditions, medicines, and essential supplies to ensure epidemic prevention work after the flood.

The Secretary of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Party Committee affirmed that all equipment and materials donated by the Ministry and the province will be promptly distributed to key areas to support epidemic prevention work.

Minister Dao Hong Lan presented medical supplies to support Thai Nguyen in disease prevention and control after floods.

On this occasion, the Minister of Health presented Thai Nguyen province with 10,000 doses of vaccine, 10,000 doses of tetanus anti-toxin serum and 2 tons of chloramine B to serve the work of disease prevention and control; supported Linh Son Medical Station and Quang Vinh Medical Station each with a vaccine storage cabinet and 50 million VND to improve the capacity of grassroots medical facilities.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/tin-noi-bat/202510/kien-quyet-khong-de-dich-benh-bung-phat-sau-mua-lu-88f6922/