After one year study in Hung Ha district (Thai Binh province) and Cai Lay district (Tien Giang province) from November 1997 to October 1998, the experimental active surveillance system was successfully established in both organizational and technical aspects at the study sites. It is proved that establishing the active surveillance system is necessary and useful in terms of controlling effectively outbreak of communicable diseases. It provides the accurate, complete, and punctual data, so that the epidemic control will be performed timely and effectively. This active surveillance system should be expanded to the other sites
Communicable Diseases ; epidemiology

A sentinel surveillance system for communicable diseases, was implemented in Hung Ha district (Thai Binh province) and Cai Lay district (Tien Giang province), by strengthening the existing routine surveillance system: improvement of microbiological investigation and introduction of computerized reporting and information system.
Communicable Diseases ; Nitriles

A case-control study was realized at children hospital No 1 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in order to identify the risk factors of diarrhoeal infants under 3 years of age. The cases were hospitalized with persistent diarrhoeal diagnosis according to World Health Organization standards. The controls were hospitalized cases without any diarrhoeal symptoms, being the same age and admitted to hospital at the same time as the case. The sample size was 140 cases and 164 controls. At the moment of inclusion, all the subjects were interviewed, examined and all the information about them were recorded in questionnaire forms by the well trained doctors. Epi info package was used for invariable analysis and Egret for multiple logistic regression, 37 factors were studied, but at the end of the analysis, only 6 factors were associated significantly with persistent diarrhea
Diarrhea ; Child ; Risk factors

42 volunteers and 182 households were collected randomly. The results: 49% of households were visited monthly and 41% have had correct knowledge on DF/DHF but almost of them have known larvae and mosquito as the disease vector. 33% of volunteer households had larvae in water containers, while this rate was 42% in inhabitant households. Water containers are now concretely closed in about 60% of the households, and water is regularly renewed in 70% of them. Close cooperation between local authorities, schools and volunteers should be maintained in order to improve the results of these activities
Dengue ; therapeutics

A model of close cooperation between local administration, schools and health services in steering the preventive activities proved to be suitable and applicable. Regular visits to households were made by volunteers who checked water containers, sewage and provided health education to the community. A one year of survey after the intervention showed that: 87% of the interviewed people in this area had reasonable knowledge on DHF and DHF prevention, and 80% of the households used mesocyclops. Breteau index and mosquito density index decreased considerably
Dengue ; therapeutics ; Copepoda

A K.A.P. survey on dengue heamorrhagis fever (DHF) was carried out in 6 sentinel provinces (An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, HCM city, Dong Nai, Can Tho) of program for control of DHF of Southern region at the end of the year 1998. One district was selected in each province. 30 random clusters with sample size of 2000 households were applied for each district. The results: most of households heads (91%) have heard about DHF, by T.V. (62%). Continuous high fever for 2 days was a common symptom of DHF. The first health facilities for seeking DHF treatment were communal health stations (32%), and private clinic (25%). 74% of subjects understood that DHF was transmitted by mosquito. Larval habitant were considered as clean water container without cover (60%) and solid waste containers (used tires, tin, can…) by 15%. Subject prefer to cover water containers (34%), to clean water containers (25%), to destroy waster containers (14%), to put larvicid fishes into water containers (11%), to spray (50%).
Dengue ; epidemiology

A retrospective study of death cases due to dengue haemorrhagic fever in 19 provinces of Southern Viet Nam in 2000 showed that: most of the death cases were under 15 years of age (93%), mainly children 5-9 years; 81.6% of these cases were in South-West provinces. Almost of death cases were due to the late hospitalization (3-4 days after the onset of disease). The death cases occurred on the first 24 hours and on 3rd-6th day of hospitalization were accounted for 58.1% and 93% respectively. Most of death cases occurred in province hospitals (58.1%) and district hospitals (37.2%).
Dengue ; epidemiology ; death

The authors conducted a retrospective study of deaths caused by DF/DHF in Southern Vietnam in 1999. The results showed that most of deaths (92.5%) are under 15 years of age peaking with the age group 5-9 years; 79.2% of them live in the region of Mekong delta. Several cases were transferred to hospital 3 or 4 days after the onset of illness; 45% of all deaths occur during the first 24 hours of hospitalization; 64.4% of them come from provincial hospital and 20.8% come from district hospitals.
Dengue ; epidemiology ; death

This study was applied for 1,729 children under 5 years of age selected randomly from Cai Be district, Tien Giang province by 30 cluster method. The overall incidence was 40.5 episodes/100 infants/years, it was highest for infants under 6 months of age (96 episodes/100 infants/years), followed by infants 6 to 11 months of age (84 episodes/100 infants/years). After 24 months of age, it decreased obviously. The duration of diarrhea: the majority of diarrhea episodes were short duration, 86% of episodes lasted from 1 to 4 days, only 0.5% lasted over 14 days. Risk factors associated to the prolongation of diarrhea were: infants under 1 year of age, liquid stool with defecation more than 5 times in 24 hour, bloody stool, using antibiotics more than 5 days, malnutrition and beginning of mixing feeding.
diarrhea ; risk factors ; child

The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of rotavirus in diarrhoeal disease of children under five years of age living in the Mekong delta area (1993-1997). ELISA method was applied for detecting rotavirus in stools. The results showed that the identification rate of rotavirus in acute diarrhea cases detected from household visits was 6.5% (32/494 specimens), in acute diarrhea cases hospitalized was 22.4% (15/67 specimens) and in persistent diarrhea cases hospitalized was 11% (10/91 specimens). Rotavirus was also identified in healthy children (0.7%). Rotavirus identification rate was higher in children under 1 year of age than in children over 1 year of age; no difference between malnourished children and normal children; higher in the dry season (November, December, January, February, March).
diarrhea ; child ; epidemiology ; rotavirus