Dengue fever has been on the rise in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, with nearly 8,500 patients recorded so far this year, including nine fatalities in six districts, local health authorities reported.

Deputy director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control Khong Minh Tuan confirmed these figures on Friday when talking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The nine deaths included three in Thanh Oai, two in Thanh Tri, and one each in Ha Dong, Phu Xuyen, Dan Phuong and Long Bien, Tuan said.

The death toll was among 8,481 cases of dengue fever documented in all 30 districts of the city since early this year, according to the latest report of the Hanoi Department of Health.

This patient number is 3.2 times higher than the same period in 2021, when no mortality was recorded, the department noted, warning that the city’s total dengue cases for the whole 2022 may exceed the average of the 2019 - 21 period. 

So far this year, Hanoi has recorded about 720 dengue outbreaks, of which 156 have remained active, the agency reported, anticipating that this year’s dengue peak will fall in mid-November.

The health department requested all of its units to strengthen measures to early detect dengue at treatment facilities as well as in the community in order to localize and handle epidemic outbreaks timely and effectively.

An inspection team led by Vu Cao Cuong, deputy director of the department, conducted an inspection of dengue fever prevention and control in Hoang Mai District, on Thursday. 

Poor environmental hygiene conditions, including stagnated water, in some residential quarters and construction sites in the district have facilitated the development of larvae of mosquitoes including those transmitting dengue fever, the inspection team reported.

The district has recorded 426 dengue patients so far this year and currently has nine active outbreaks in 14 wards, according to Suc Khoe & Doi Song (Health & Life) online newspaper under the Ministry of Health.

People with fever should take a blood count test and diagnostic test at a hospital for early detection of dengue and timely treatment, Cuong recommended.

Dengue patients will be monitored, consulted and treated promptly by doctors, Cuong said, adding that some certain cases can be treated at home under doctors’ instructions, without needing to be hospitalized. 

As dengue fever is transmitted from person to person through mosquito bites, the most effective measure to prevent the disease is to kill mosquitoes and minimize their habitats, including places of slow-moving or stagnant water, doctors said.

Typical symptoms of dengue fever are high fever for two to seven days, accompanied with signs of hemorrhage such as petechial spots, gum or nose bleeding, bruises, and abnormal vaginal bleeding in pubertal girls.

Children must be taken to the hospital immediately when they suffer such symptoms as lethargy or writhe, colds, wet limbs, severe abdominal pain, continuous vomiting, excessive mucosal bleeding, vomiting blood, bloody urine, or black stools, doctors advised.

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