Instances of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus, have risen in Ho Chi Minh City since June, which saw nearly 90 more patients than May, health authorities said.     The disease attacked 519 people last month, a 20 percent increase from May, when 433 patients were recorded, Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the city’s Preventive Health Center, said at a meeting on Wednesday. The rise of the disease has gone along with the start of the rainy season that began early June, Dr. Dung said. District 3, Thu Duc District, and Tan Phu District are the three localities with the most patients, he told the meeting. The center has conducted inspections in a number of localities and discovered poor coordination between local residents and health authorities in coping with dengue fever, Dr. Dung warned.

Many residents did not even allow health workers to enter their houses to spray mosquito-killer, the official said. As a result, the mosquito larvae indexes in those localities are very high, he said. Besides Ho Chi Minh City, eight other locales in the Mekong Delta region have also seen high rates of inhabitants contracting the disease, including Can Tho, Hau Giang, Ca Mau, Soc Trang, An Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Long, according to the Ministry of Health. Nationwide, nearly 11,400 dengue fever cases were reported in the first five months of this year, the ministry said, adding that the rainy season is the time when cases of the disease strongly rise.  Dengue fever is an infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus, according to the World Health Organization.

The mosquito becomes infected when it bites a person with the dengue virus in their blood, the organization says. It cannot be spread directly from one person to another, it notes. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. There is no vaccine against dengue, so the best preventive measure is mainly to kill mosquitoes that transmit the virus, the Vietnamese health ministry said. People should protect themselves from mosquito bites and closely cover all containers of water to prevent mosquitoes from entering them and laying eggs, health experts advised.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!