About 10,060 patients of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus, have been recorded until September 24 this year in Ho Chi Minh City, a year-on-year increase of 79 percent, health authorities reported.  Of these patients, five have died, and the epidemic has spread to 239 wards and communes in the city, said Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the municipal Preventive Health Center. Dr. Dung released the figures at a meeting held on Tuesday between the local Department of Health and a working team from the Ministry of Health, led by Dr. Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Preventive Health Department. The team arrived in the city to inspect the spread of dengue fever in Phu Thanh Ward in Tan Phu District, and the treatment of children with the disease at Children’s Hospital 2. The sharp rise in the number of dengue patients, plus the surge in patients reported with hand, foot and mouth disease and respiratory illnesses, has caused serious overloads in Children’s Hospitals 1 and 2, and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Dr. Dung said. Statistics at Children’s Hospital 1 show that 8,013 kids were hospitalized on October 5, of whom many contracted dengue fever. The figure was much higher than the 7,077 recorded a week ago, the hospital said. This year’s dengue fever epidemic will likely continue spreading as 2015 is the peak of a four-or-five-year cycle of the disease, Dr. Phu said. He had earlier reported that the epidemic had spread to 53 out of the country’s 63 provinces and cities, claiming 28 lives.  At the meeting, he called on hospitals to take measures to ease patient overloads, enhance treatment efficiency, and minimize cross-infection among patients of different ailments. Dr. Nguyen Trong Lan, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, also warned that the dengue epidemic may last until next year. Ho Chi Minh is now the center of the pandemic as it accounts for 30 percent of the total number of dengue cases in southern Vietnam, Dr. Lan said. Being an infectious disease, dengue fever is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus, according to the World Health Organization. The mosquito gets infected when it bites a person with the dengue virus in their blood. It cannot be spread directly from one person to another. Symptoms include high fever (at 39 degrees Celsius or higher), headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. Anybody with such symptoms should go to a hospital for examination and treatment soon, Dr. Phu said. It is unadvisable for dengue patients to take antipyretics of their own choice or treat themselves at home, as improper therapies can cause fatal complications, the doctor warned. As no vaccine against dengue is available, the main preventive measure is to kill mosquitoes that transmit the virus, the health ministry said.

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