Illustrative image (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) –The number of cases in in the
first seven weeks of 2019 surged by nearly 250 percent over the same period
last year, reported the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre.
According
to the centre, from January 1 to February 14, as many as 6,733 dengue fever
patients were hospitalised, or nearly 1,000 cases each week. One death from
dengue fever has been reported in the city.
Since the beginning
of this year, the number of has increased 249 percent
year-on-year.
The
centre’s director Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung explained that this year, the peak of dengue
fever season is more than 10 weeks late compared to the previous season,
falling in the third week of 2019 instead of late 2018. Thus, although the typical
season for the disease has nearly ended, the number of cases remains high.
Meanwhile,
the city has also been suffering from a measles outbreak which has attacked many
areas in the world.
Local
hospitals have been receiving about 150 measles patients each week on average.
From the beginning of 2019, the city recorded 926 hospitalised cases. The
figure for the same period of 2018 was only two.
Notably, during
the Lunar New Year holiday, a strong rise was seen in the number of measles
cases.
At the same
time, while on the decline, the hand-foot-mouth disease in children has remained
high compared to the same time last year, with 30-45 hospitalised cases each
week.
Therefore,
the municipal advised locals to vaccinate children against
measles, while applying drastic measures to prevent dengue fever and hand-foot-mouth disease, including killing mosquitoes and washing
hands regularly. –VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
