Health teams visit homes to control meningitis outbreak

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, health teams are visiting homes to manage an outbreak of bacterial meningitis.

Starting October 14th, members of the continuous health care teams, doctors, nurses, and community health workers from Hiep Phuoc Ward, began monitoring people who had contact with meningitis cases. These teams went door-to-door, checking on nearly 200 close contacts and providing health information.

Each of the seven teams in Hiep Phuoc Ward consists of four to six medical staff and three to four local collaborators. Before entering areas with confirmed cases, team members took preventative antibiotics. At homes where someone died from meningitis, doctors checked the health of family members and advised them to seek immediate medical attention if symptoms appeared.

The teams also responded to a case at Hai Ba Trung Secondary School, administering preventative antibiotics to over 2,000 students and teachers by the afternoon of October 15th. Through October 25th, the teams planned to continue monitoring nearly 200 close contacts, offering check-ins and guidance on what symptoms required a visit to the hospital. Local officials and community collaborators are supporting the effort, helping to track contacts and share information on social media.

The city’s Department of Health is piloting this model of proactive, community-based healthcare in Hiep Phuoc Ward and two other locations, hoping to move beyond a system where people only seek care when they are already sick.