HCM City sees strong rise in dengue fever cases

HCM City (VNA) –The number of dengue fever cases in Ho Chi Minh City in the first seven weeks of 2019 surged by nearly 250 percent over the same period last year, reported the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre.

According to the centre, from January 1 to February 14, as many as 6,733 dengue fever patients were hospitalised, or nearly 1,000 cases each week. One death from dengue fever has been reported in the city.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of dengue-infected cases has increased 249 percent year-on-year.

The centre’s director Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung explained that this year, the peak of dengue fever season is more than 10 weeks late compared to the previous season, falling in the third week of 2019 instead of late 2018. Thus, although the typical season for the disease has nearly ended, the number of cases remains high.

Meanwhile, the city has also been suffering from a measles outbreak which has attacked many areas in the world.

Local hospitals have been receiving about 150 measles patients each week on average. From the beginning of 2019, the city recorded 926 hospitalised cases. The figure for the same period of 2018 was only two.

Notably, during the Lunar New Year holiday, a strong rise was seen in the number of measles cases.

At the same time, while on the decline, the hand-foot-mouth disease in children has remained high compared to the same time last year, with 30-45 hospitalised cases each week.

Therefore, the municipal Preventive Medicine Centre advised locals to vaccinate children against measles, while applying drastic measures to prevent dengue fever and hand-foot-mouth disease, including killing mosquitoes and washing hands regularly. –VNA