HCM City: New cases of communicable diseases slowly drop hinh anh 1A doctor provides medical checkup for a child patient with measles (Photo: VNA)
 
HCM City (VNA) – New cases of communicable diseases in Ho Chi Minh City have gradually declined, but the figure stayed at a high level, said the municipal Preventive Medicine Centre.

From the start of the year to the end of February, the city recorded 8,480 cases of dengue fever, a rise of 264 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, in the first two months of 2019, there were up to 1,206 measles cases in the city, compared to only two cases in the same period last year.

The high number of measles cases is caused by a low vaccination rate. A survey of the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre showed that 95 percent of the patients have not been vaccinated, with 50 percent between the ages of 18 months and 10 years.

HCM City also recorded 368 cases of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, a year-on-year rise of 43 percent.

Director of the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre Nguyen Tri Dung said the number of new cases have been on a slow decline.
 
Accordingly, in late February, there were 570 and 130 new cases of dengue and measles per week, down from 880 and 200 the previous month, respectively. –VNA
VNA