Doctors brace for influx as chickenpox season peaks
March is time of highest risk of catching chickenpox, according to the National Institute of Demartology and Verenology in Ha Noi.
“Chickenpox breaks out from February to June but reaches a peak in March,” said Dr Nguyen Thanh, head of the institute’s medical check-up ward.
Dr Nguyen Hong Ha, deputy director of the National Hospital for Contagious and Tropical Diseases, said chickenpox often attacked children aged 5-11 but many adults and pregnant women had contracted the disease.
“Adults may catch chickenpox if they have not yet been vaccinated or their immune systems were weak,” Ha said. When people caught the disease, they should be kept in isolation for 7-10 days because the disease can be transmitted through the respiratory system, she said.
It was essential to keep the patient clean by bathing every day and to get prompt treatment if the disease developed, she said.
The institute provided check-up and treatment for more than 300 patients in the first two months of this year while Ha Noi’s Dermatology and Verenology Hospital received nearly 200 patients last month.
Chickenpox is caused by varicella zoster virus and characterised by skin eruptions.
VietNamNet/VNS
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