Dengue fever patients being treated in a hospital in HCM City. — Photo vov.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has recorded more than 236,700 cases of dengue fever since the beginning of this year, including jumps of 600 per cent and 1,800 per cent in HCM City and Quảng Trị Province, respectively, as compared to last year, according to the Ministry of Health.

There have been a total of 98 deaths across the country this year, an increase of 78 cases from last year.

The number of deaths had risen due to many factors, especially the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic that caused many difficulties for many healthcare facilities, said Nguyễn Trọng Khoa, deputy director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment (Ministry of Health).

In fact, in the past 10 years, the mortality rate from dengue in Việt Nam was lower than in other countries in the region, Nghĩa said.

Although it is October now, the dengue fever epidemic has not shown any signs of slowing and even continues to increase sharply in many localities across the country, especially in the south.

HCM City has registered more than 62,000 infections since the start of this year, including 1,360 severe cases.

Notably, the number of deaths from dengue this year in HCM City has been quite high, with 25 cases, an increase of 20 cases compared to the same period in 2021, 75 per cent of which have been adults.

One of the reasons for the high number of deaths was that patients were hospitalised late so they did not receive timely treatment.

Some southern provinces have also recorded an increase in dengue cases this year, such as An Giang Province with 13,200 cases, an increase of seven times compared to the same period last year, and Tiền Giang Province with 7,096 cases, including four deaths just in one week.

In the central province of Quảng Trị, more than 1,050 cases have been registered, an increase of 19 times over the same period last year.

The Ministry of Health has assessed that the southern, central and Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) regions continue to record high numbers of cases and deaths.

The ministry reported that from the beginning of this year until now, Hà Nội had recorded over 4,700 cases, increasing 3.8 times compared to last year and there had been five deaths. The types of dengue viruses circulating in the city were identified as type D1, D2 and D4.

Specifically, in Hà Nội in the past week, there were 807 cases recorded. Although this is a slight decrease compared to the previous week, the number of cases was still very high.

Dengue fever patients were mainly in the districts of Đống Đa, Thanh Oai, Hà Đông, Thanh Trì and Phúc Thọ.

Facing the complicated situation of the dengue fever epidemic, localities are making efforts to prevent the spread of the disease and improve their capacity to respond to the disease outbreak.

Dengue fever is a disease spread by mosquitoes that bite an infected person and then transmit the disease to healthy people through bites.

To date, there is no vaccine for dengue fever and no specific treatment. The main and most effective preventive measures are killing mosquitoes and larvae.

So, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, people's awareness of disease prevention is extremely important.

In particular, when there are signs of fever, people should immediately go to a medical facility for examination and treatment and not self-treat at home to avoid possible dangerous complications, the ministry recommended. — VNS