Vietnam ensures sufficient supply of HFMD medications
VOV.VN - Vietnam now has enough medication for treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), says Le Viet Dung, deputy director of the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV).
The DAV earlier granted a license to import 15,000 bottles of Plasma-derived Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) in order to supply hospitals for the treatment of HFMD.
Local businesses have imported 8,258 bottles and supplied them to a number of treatment facilities. It is expected that roughly 2,000 bottles of medicine will continue to be brought into Vietnam by the end of November.
IVIG is an effective adjuvant treatment used in severe cases of HFMD and helps to reduce the rate of transfer, as well as the rate of severe complications of the disease in children. However, Vietnam has yet to produce the drug domestically.
The production of the drug is entirely dependent on the supply of plasma through blood donation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people donating blood has significantly decreased, a factor which has caused a shortage of raw materials for Immunoglobulin production on a global scale.
Some 21,000 ampoules of intravenous phenobarbital were also imported to the country following a long interruption.
Phenobarbital can be administered orally or by injection, preferably the injectable form when the patient is seriously ill. Phenobarbital is used for children and has many advantages with few side-effects. Indeed, it has long been used by doctors for pediatric patients.
According to the latest statistics produced by the Ministry of Health, the country has so far logged more than 100,200 HFMD patients, including 22 deaths .
