Activities for the annual ASEAN Dengue Day will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 14.

Organised by the Ministry of Health, the day's events are expected to attract 3,000 attendees.

ASEAN Dengue Day is an advocacy event agreed upon during the 10th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting in 2010.

Since 2005, dengue fever has become one of the most important public health problems receiving international attention, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Asia Pacific region bears 75 percent of the global burden. In the Western Pacific region, 31 out of 37 countries and areas have reported dengue fever cases in the past two decades.

In the world, an estimated 50-100 million cases are reported each year.

In May, the city recorded 394 cases, a drop of 23 percent against April.

However, since the beginning of the year, the total number of cases increased by 1,327 compared to the same period of last year. A total of 4,532 cases have been reported.

In the first five months of the year, the southern region saw a 29 percent increase in dengue fever cases.

The capital city Hanoi has reported 104 dengue fever cases since the beginning of this year, an increase of 62 cases compared with last year.

However, no casualties were reported so far, according to the Hanoi steering committee on disease prevention and control. The patients came from 19 of 30 districts in the city.

Nguyen Nhat Cam, director of the Hanoi Preventive Medicine Centre, said the number of cases has been forecast to increase in the following months and reach the highest in October and November, the disease season.-VNA