According to a Health Ministry report, nearly 36,900 people across the country have been infected with the mosquito-borne disease so far this year, 24 percent down from the same period last year.
Of those infected this year, 33 have died.
The ministry said that southern provinces and cities have been hardest-hit accounting for 80-85 percent of reported cases.
HCMC has reported the highest number of dengue cases, with more than 6,100 patients infected so far this year, followed by Ca Mau, Soc Trang and Tien Giang provinces.
The HCMC-based Pediatrics Hospital No. 2 said Tuesday that about 80 dengue fever patients, mostly aged between 5 and 10, were being treated at the hospital.
Le Hoang Son, director of Can Tho City Pediatrics Hospital, said 40 children had been admitted with the disease.
Son said 30 percent of the children were from Can Tho while the rest were from neighboring provinces in the Mekong Delta region.
Last month, a large number of dengue fever cases caused several hospitals in the Mekong Delta region to become overloaded.
The Children’s Emergency Department at Ca Mau General Hospital and Soc Trang General Hospital’s Children’s Department struggled to cope with the influx of dengue patients.
In the northern city of Hanoi, more than 222 people have been infected with dengue fever so far this year, a 21 percent year-on-year decrease.
Dang Thi Kim Hanh, a secretary for Hanoi’s Dengue Fever Control and Prevention Program, said that as more rain is expected over the next three months, the weather will be conducive to the breeding of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes – the vector by which dengue is spread.
The use of mosquito repellent may kill mature mosquitoes, but Hanh warns that mosquito eggs remain a problem and says that eliminating the larvae should be part of the effort to control the disease.
Nguyen Trung Nghia, director of the Can Tho City Preventive Health Center, said the city and Mekong Delta provinces were mobilizing local families to breed guppies to help eliminate mosquito larvae.
The guppies – which feed on the larvae – can be bred in open water areas, which make ideal breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes.
In Ben Tre Province, authorities have provided residents in dengue-hit areas with more than 50,000 guppies over the past seven months.
Reported by Thanh Nien staff |
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