Previously (on October 16), a death due to bacillary dysentery was recorded in Nậm Kè commune. The patient was G.A.C.S. (11 years old), a 6th-grade student (class 6A4) at Nậm Kè Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Secondary School, residing in Chuyên Gia 2 village, Nậm Kè commune. According to information, on October 8, the student began showing symptoms of a headache. The family took the student home for observation but did not seek medical attention. From October 13 to 14, at school, the student continued to have symptoms of a mild fever, poor appetite, and frequent loose stools. On the morning of October 15, the family took the student home for observation, and around 3am on October 16, S. passed away at home.

After the incident, the provincial Center for Disease Control took 4 samples, including samples from the patient and some people from the same village with similar symptoms. Test results on October 20 from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that all 4 samples tested positive for Shigella flexneri bacteria, the causative agent of bacillary dysentery. Therefore, the health sector and local authorities are urgently zoning, monitoring, and communicating to prevent the spread of the disease.

According to surveys, the main source of domestic water for people in Nậm Kè commune is stream water. The rate of households with latrines in the entire commune is 83.4%, but only 44.9% are assessed as hygienic. The fact that people, especially students, still practice open defecation directly affects the domestic water source, increasing the risk of disease transmission.

Mr. Nguyễn Tiến Thành, Chairman of the Nậm Kè commune People’s Committee, said: “Immediately after the outbreak, the commune established a Steering Committee for Disease Prevention and Control, assigned specific tasks to each member, and implemented the ‘4 on-the-spot’ motto for proactive response. The Steering Committee coordinated with the provincial Center for Disease Control and the Mường Nhé Health Center to hold an emergency meeting, issue a disease prevention plan, and direct schools and 21 villages in the commune to strengthen communication, monitoring, and sample collection.”

After the positive results, the commune continued to organize direct communication campaigns, send information via Zalo groups and loudspeaker systems, and mobilize health, border guard, and mass organization forces to participate. At the same time, the commune required schools to increase inspections of environmental hygiene, water sources, and food safety in collective kitchens, manage students closely, and promptly report suspected cases.

As of the afternoon of October 24, the entire commune had recorded 115 cases of dysentery, including 1 death. According to statistics, the cases are mainly concentrated in schools: Nậm Kè Kindergarten has 6 cases, Nậm Kè No.2 Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Primary School has 17 cases, Nậm Kè Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Secondary School has 82 cases, and there are 10 cases in the community. Due to the nature of collective living and boarding, schools are currently places where the disease is spreading rapidly. Faced with this situation, educational institutions in the area and neighboring regions have urgently implemented disease prevention and control measures, increased environmental sanitation, disinfected classrooms, checked water sources, guided students on washing hands with soap, and monitored health daily to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

This school year, Nậm Pố Primary School (Mường Nhé commune) has 739 students, including 251 semi-boarding students, studying at 4 school sites (1 central site and 3 satellite sites). When the dysentery outbreak occurred at some educational institutions in Nậm Kè commune, the school proactively implemented many solutions to prevent the disease and protect the health of students.

Teacher Vũ Văn Nguyện, Principal of Nậm Pố Primary School, said: “The school always prioritizes hygiene and disease prevention. We regularly remind students to wash their hands thoroughly after eating, maintain personal hygiene, and especially keep the toilet areas clean. In addition, the school also assigns an official in charge of school health who regularly coordinates with the local health team to check health, communicate disease prevention to students and parents. For semi-boarding students, the school contracts 5 cooks, ensuring meals are always thoroughly cooked and water boiled to reduce the risk of infection.”

Although far from the bacillary dysentery outbreak in Nậm Kè commune, Phìn Hồ Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Primary School (Si Pa Phìn commune) has also proactively implemented synchronous prevention and control measures to protect the health of students, officials, and teachers. Immediately after receiving information about the dysentery outbreak, the school’s management board organized communication sessions for all teachers, students, and parents about the causes, transmission routes, and prevention methods.

Teacher Nguyễn Văn Quân, Principal of Phìn Hồ Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Primary School, stated: “Although the outbreak is in Nậm Kè and my school is far away and unaffected, the management board has still strengthened preventive measures to ensure absolute safety for the students. Dysentery is mainly transmitted through the sanitation system and the digestive tract, so the school has directed all classes to clean three times a day, use soap for handwashing, and use disinfectant solutions to clean toilets and common living areas. We require 100% of students showing signs of illness to be taken to a medical facility; absolutely no self-medication is allowed at school. Along with that, the school also promotes communication through class groups and parent groups to raise awareness of disease prevention, determined not to let the epidemic spread into the school.”

Faced with the complex developments of the bacillary dysentery epidemic in Nậm Kè commune, the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee has directed all levels, sectors, and localities to strengthen prevention, control, and containment efforts to prevent the epidemic from spreading widely. Accordingly, the provincial People’s Committee is required to decisively direct functional agencies to synchronously implement measures to completely handle the outbreak, especially at Nậm Kè Ethnic Minority Semi-Boarding Secondary School, where many cases have been recorded. At the same time, food sources and domestic water at semi-boarding schools must be strictly controlled to ensure student safety.

The Nậm Kè commune Party Committee has been assigned the task of mobilizing the entire political system to participate in epidemic prevention and control; coordinating with the province’s specialized agencies to monitor, communicate, and promptly report on the epidemic situation. In addition, all communes and wards throughout the province must proactively implement preventive measures to prevent new outbreaks. The provincial Party Committee’s Commission for Education, Information Dissemination and Mass Mobilization is responsible for monitoring and advising the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee on timely leadership and direction of prevention and control efforts, ensuring the bacillary dysentery epidemic does not spread in the area.

Bacillary dysentery is developing complexly, so the decisive and synchronous involvement of party committees, authorities, the health sector, and the entire political system is extremely necessary. With a spirit of proactivity, responsibility, and high determination, party committees, authorities at all levels, and functional agencies are focusing on controlling and containing the epidemic to prevent its spread. In parallel, every citizen and student needs to raise awareness of maintaining personal hygiene, eating cooked food and drinking boiled water, and washing hands with soap to join hands in protecting community health and effectively preventing the epidemic.