HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health on Monday asked hospitals in the city to work all weekends for timely discovery and treatment of dengue fever patients.

Central hospitals, including Bạch Mai Hospital, E Hospital and the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, have been overcrowded with dengue fever patients for the past few days.

Trần Thị Nhị Hà, deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Health, said the number of dengue fever patients in Hoàng Mai, Đống Đa and other districts of the capital city continued to increase.

Since the beginning of this year, as many as 8,000 people in Hà Nội have been infected by the disease and three fatalities have been reported.

Districts with a high number of patients include Đống Đa with more than 1,400 cases, Hoàng Mai with over 1,300 cases, Hai Bà Trưng with more than 500 cases and Thanh Trì with over 400 cases.

The Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases is the hospital with the highest number of dengue fever patients in the northern area.

Director of the hospital Nguyễn Văn Kính said the hospital was screening patients carefully. From the more than 5,000 people visiting the hospital for dengue fever examination, only 800 in serious condition were hospitalised.

On an average, the patients are treated in hospital for three or four days. When their condition is better, they are moved to lower-level hospitals.

Deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Health Hoàng Đức Hạnh said the reason for the high number of patients, not only in Việt Nam but also worldwide, was that there was no vaccine or specific remedy for the disease.

Beside this, he said, Hà Nội had several residential zones where no one lived, as well as some areas where residents had the custom of storing water, creating favourable conditions for mosquitoes to reproduce.

To reduce pressure on hospitals that were getting overcrowded with patients, Hà Nội will hold a conference on Wednesday with the participation of private hospitals to select hospitals that can provide treatment to dengue fever patients.

Private hospital and clinics, together with district clinics, will give first aid to patients. If a patient’s condition deteriorates, he/she will be moved to upper-level hospitals.

Director of the Hà Nội Department of Health Nguyễn Khắc Hiền said the work of prevention and control in the near future was not only to focus on the hot spots, but also concentrate on areas where the disease had not spread.

Organisations, enterprises or individuals that did not join hands with the health sector in the prevention of the disease must be penalised strictly, he said.

Providing guidance, Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến said provinces and cities must impart education to residents on killing mosquito larvae and keeping the environment clean.

Minister Tiến asked localities to provide more training on dengue fever treatment to medical workers and also pay attention to other weather-related diseases such as pink eyes and encephalitis. — VNS