A doctor examines a dengue fever patient (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Health has urged people to take actions toprevent dengue fever amid increasing infections nationwide.
Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries likeThailand, Laos and Cambodia are located in a region with many diseases causedby arbovirus, including Aedes aegypti mosquito-borne diseases such as denguefever and Zika. These communicable diseases have a high risk of becomingepidemics and are not limited by borders.
There are about 1,700 – 1,800 new dengue fevercases reported in Vietnam each week recently, according to the Ministry ofHealth’s Preventive Medicine Department.
The numbers of dengue patients in Hanoi, Da Nangcity and the provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Tra Vinh and Ca Mau have risensharply in the first five months of the year from the same period in 2016. Upto 80 percent of the cases and 90 percent of the deaths from the disease are reportedin southern localities.
Hanoi recorded nearly 500 dengue patients fromthe beginning of 2017 to May, up 45 percent from a year earlier, the capitalcity’s preventive medicine centre reported.
There are four types of dengue viruses inVietnam, the Preventive Medicine Department said, adding that one person cancontract many types of viruses and be infected with dengue fever many times.Meanwhile, an infected people can also transmit the disease if the mosquitoesbite the patient and then a healthy person.
People should not underestimate this disease,the department added.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long saidthere is not yet an effective medicine to treat dengue fever while denguevaccination remains unpopular.
The main prevention measure is to eliminatetransmission sources, he said, admitting that global warming, El Nino,uncontrolled urbanisation and migration have hampered dengue preventionefforts.
The Ministry of Health launched a campaign tocall on people nationwide to eradicate mosquitoes and larvae to prevent denguefever and Zika virus. Various activities under the drive have been carried out acrossthe country, Long added.-VNA
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