A dengue fever cases at the National Tropical Diseases Hospital. Dengue fever cases have dramatically increased in the last two weeks in northern Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Ngọc

HÀ NỘI — Dengue fever cases have dramatically increased in the last two weeks in northern Việt Nam.

Notably, many victims suffered dangerous complications such as brain and organ haemorrhages, which can be fatal.

The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been overcrowded with dengue fever patients, with some patients forced to share beds, according to online newspaper Vietnamplus.vn.

Nguyễn Văn Thắng, 26, living in Khâm Thiên Street of Hà Nội was hospitalised after six days of self-treatment at home.

“In the first day of the fever, I bought medicine myself at the pharmacy but the fever did not subside”, Thắng told the newspaper.

“Then I went to a hospital near my house for treatment for three days but the fever got worse. I decided to go to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases where I was diagnosed with dengue fever”, he said.

Dr Nguyễn Trung Cấp said Thắng was lucky because he arrived in hospital in the early stages of infection.

Two female patients are in severe condition in the hospital, with one inefected with dengue fever and myocarditis, while the also has the rare blood disorder thrombocytopenic purpura, the doctor said.

Four day ago, a man died of a brain haemorrhage brought on by dengue fever.

The director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Dr Nguyễn Văn Kính, said that the dengue fever outbreak has been developing rapidly in Hà Nội and northern provinces.

The number of patients has increased rapidly due to weather changes and rains which have been ideal for the development of mosquitoes.

For the first half this year, more than 50,000 cases of dengue fever were recorded nationwide, of which 15 resulted in deaths, Kính said. 

This year, the number of dengue-infected patients with haemorrhages was higher than in previous years, the doctors warned.

 “Among 15 deaths, there were four or five with brain haemorrhages. This situation was abnormal. Because previous years, dengue-infected patients with brain haemorrhages amounted to only one or two cases cases”, the doctor said.

The number of dengue-infected patients was four times higher than the same period last year.

According to the hospital’s statistics, the hospital has received an average of 200 dengue patients daily for the last two weeks. 

“We were worried that by September the patient numbers would be much higher. Health workers will be exhausted and hospital facilities overloaded”, the director said.

Amidst the dengue outbreak in Hà Nội and northern provinces, doctors advised people with high fever to go to hospitals for tests.

Dengue fever is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. There is no specific vaccine for dengue. — VNS