Health ministry urges proactive prevention of dengue fever

A doctor examines a dengue fever patient (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Health has urged people to take actions to
prevent amid increasing infections nationwide.

Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries like
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are located in a region with many diseases caused
by arbovirus, including such as dengue
fever and Zika. These communicable diseases have a high risk of becoming
epidemics and are not limited by borders.

There are about 1,700 – 1,800 new dengue fever
cases reported in Vietnam each week recently, according to the Ministry of
Health’s Preventive Medicine Department. 

The numbers of dengue patients in Hanoi, Da Nang
city and the provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Tra Vinh and Ca Mau have risen
sharply in the first five months of the year from the same period in 2016. Up
to 80 percent of the cases and 90 percent of the deaths from the disease are reported
in southern localities. 

Hanoi recorded nearly 500 dengue patients from
the beginning of 2017 to May, up 45 percent from a year earlier, the capital
city’s preventive medicine centre reported.

There are four types of dengue viruses in
Vietnam, the Preventive Medicine Department said, adding that one person can
contract many types of viruses and be infected with dengue fever many times.
Meanwhile, an infected people can also transmit the disease if the mosquitoes
bite the patient and then a healthy person.

People should not underestimate this disease,
the department added.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said
there is not yet an effective medicine to treat dengue fever while dengue
vaccination remains unpopular.

The main prevention measure is to eliminate
transmission sources, he said, admitting that global warming, El Nino,
uncontrolled urbanisation and migration have hampered dengue prevention
efforts.

The launched a campaign to
call on people nationwide to eradicate mosquitoes and larvae to prevent dengue
fever and Zika virus. Various activities under the drive have been carried out across
the country, Long added.-VNA