Vietnam to quarantine monkeypox patients

The guideline on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of monkeypox was issued Friday, a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a global medical emergency.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are three states of monkeypox: asymptomatic, mild and severe. In any state, the patient must be isolated and treated at a medical facility. The health centers will treat asymptomatic or mild cases; provincial and central hospitals severe cases or high-risk groups like infants, the elderly, people with underlying conditions, pregnant women, and those suffering immunodeficiency.

The general principles of treatment are monitoring and quarantine, mainly symptomatic treatment, ensuring nutrition, electrolyte balance and mental support, using specific drugs for high-risk groups and monitoring for signs of severe complications.

This treatment strategy has been applied to Covid-19 patients since the outbreak of the pandemic until the first half of July last year, when Vietnam allowed quarantine and treatment at home.

Monkeypox can have serious complications, including decreased vision, declined consciousness, coma, seizure, respiratory failure, bleeding, decreased urine output, sepsis and septic shock.

Patients are discharged from hospital if they are isolated for at least 14 days and have no symptoms of the disease, no new damage appears on the skin within at least 48 hours and old wounds have healed.

The Ministry of Health said a suspected case is a person who has traveled to a country with monkeypox or had contact with objects containing the virus within 21 days before showing symptoms or clinical signs.

Currently, Vietnam has not recorded any case of monkeypox. The Ministry of Health has contacted the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccines and ordered the strengthening of border security to monitor the potential sources of infection.

As of July 29, the world has recorded 21,148 cases of monkeypox in 78 countries. Most cases of monkeypox are mild and some even recovered on their own. The mortality rate of this disease is 0.03 percent, lower than Covid-19. The number of cases has increased rapidly in the past week.