Ms. Phung Thi Luong (Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi) said that her daughter is only 3 years old and in the past two months has been to the hospital 3 times. At the end of September, the child was sick with a fever for 3 consecutive days, with earache, she took him to the doctor and said that he had acute otitis media, because the high fever did not go down, so he had to be hospitalized.
After three days of treatment, the child had a fever, a sore throat, and could not eat or drink, so Luong took him to the hospital again. The baby was diagnosed with influenza B. The whole week was in the hospital and the hospital was overloaded, so 3-4 babies could only have one bed, the mother was always haunted by fear of cross-contamination, so when she was awake, Ms. Luong would carry her child around. to the corridor, balcony for ventilation.
In mid-October, I had a fever, vomiting, and conjunctivitis. The doctor diagnosed the baby with adenovirus infection for outpatient monitoring. The baby had a fever for 3 days with diarrhea. Luong sometimes panicked because her child had one disease after another.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan – preschool teacher in Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, shared that her 5-year-old kindergarten class has 24 students, but last week the attendance was only half.

Similarly, the class of Ms. Vu Thi Hong Nhung’s daughter (grade 4), in Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, with a total of 51 students, had 15 children absent due to illness. Ms. Nhung said that every day, teachers update students on sick leave so that their parents can monitor their health and report to the teacher. Children sick due to influenza, Adenovirus, Covid-19… continuously increased in October.
Having just taken his child for treatment for a week at the National Children’s Hospital, Mr. Vu Thanh Hai – Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, said that both of his children were infected with Adenovirus. The 8-month-old baby had pneumonia, so he admitted both children to the hospital so that the couple could take care of them.
During the day his wife takes care of two children alone, in the evening he goes in to help his wife. In 2022, at 2 months old, her daughter was admitted to Saint Paul General Hospital because of viral syncytial infection, then influenza A, influenza B, and now Adenovirus.
According to Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Hoai An – Director of An Viet General Hospital, the number of children suffering from upper and lower respiratory tract infections has skyrocketed. Compared to previous years, the number of pediatric patients admitted to the clinic has increased significantly, most of them have respiratory diseases caused by viruses.
Currently, there are many viruses that cause such as influenza A, influenza B, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and especially adenovirus, not to mention fever epidemics caused by common viruses.
According to Associate Professor An, when children have symptoms of respiratory infection, parents should not give their children antibiotics in a hurry. Currently, most diseases caused by viruses are not effective if taken with antibiotics. Antibiotics are only used for superinfection and are prescribed by a doctor.
In case the child is sick many times, immunocompromised, Dr. An recommends, parents should increase the child’s resistance by providing enough nutrition, can use additional micronutrients as recommended by the doctor. specialist.
In addition, when a child has a contagious respiratory infection, it is best to keep the child home from school to avoid spreading it to other children.
According to Dr. Tran Anh Tuan – Head of Respiratory Department, Children’s Hospital 1, most of the children who come to the clinic are related to influenza virus, adeno virus and respiratory syncytial.
To distinguish children infected with adenovirus and influenza virus, parents can monitor symptoms. Both diseases have similar symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, severe shortness of breath, chest pain. However, infected with adeno virus still have additional symptoms suggesting conjunctivitis, red eyes, children may have swollen neck lymph nodes, digestive disorders.
In terms of epidemiology, if the flu has a short incubation period of 2 or 3 days, while the Adeno virus takes a longer time, but in recent times, if a child has been infected with the Adeno virus, it is necessary to be alert that it is a disease caused by the Adeno virus.
When children have respiratory infections, parents need to closely monitor, treat according to symptoms such as fever, fever, cough, use cough syrup, do not use antibiotics immediately.
During this time, doctors recommend that parents give their children more fruits and vitamins to help them feel comfortable and increase their resistance.
In particular, for children with chronic diseases belonging to the group of children with risk factors, it is necessary to continue to treat stable chronic diseases and need to be monitored and supervised more specifically for children with normal status. often.