Doctors have warned against complacency, stressing that the disease can progress rapidly and become life-threatening if patients self-medicate or delay seeking medical care.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the number of dengue patients being admitted to the hospital is currently on the rise again, accompanied by an increase in severe cases. As of August 15, the hospital was treating more than 120 dengue patients, most of them adults.
Of these, six severe cases were being monitored and treated at the hospital’s Adult Emergency, Intensive Care, and Poison Control Department. Most patients had been transferred from lower-level medical facilities, with many already in critical condition upon arrival, requiring mechanical ventilation and dialysis.
At Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital, doctors recently saved the life of a 12-year-old patient from Long Cang Commune, Tay Ninh Province, who was obese and had developed dengue shock syndrome, liver injury, and severe respiratory failure. The child was initially provided with respiratory support and non-invasive ventilation before being intubated.
According to Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien, Deputy Director of the hospital, obese children and patients experiencing a secondary dengue infection face a higher risk of severe disease because of an exaggerated immune response that increases vascular permeability, potentially leading to shock and multiple-organ damage.
Meanwhile, at Children's Hospital 1, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Head of the Dengue Fever and Hematology Department, said that since early August, the number of dengue patients being treated at the department has been trending upward, along with an increase in severe cases.
Dr. Nguyen Minh Tuan noted that dengue outbreaks no longer follow the previous pattern of occurring every three to four years but have become more frequent due to climate change, hot and humid weather, and rapid urbanization. Most severe dengue cases go through a warning phase before progressing to dangerous complications. However, in some patients, this phase develops very rapidly, making it difficult for family members to recognize the warning signs and potentially leading to complacency.
One of the key reasons dengue patients develop severe illness, according to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, is complacency regarding dengue as a mild disease or one that affects only children, self-medicating, or receiving intravenous fluids at home when symptoms appear.
Many people think they simply have a common fever or flu and buy medicine to treat themselves at home. After two or three days, when the fever subsides, they assume they have recovered and stop monitoring their condition. With dengue, however, the disappearance of fever does not mean the disease has stabilized. On the contrary, dangerous complications such as shock, coagulation disorders, bleeding, or multiple-organ failure involving the heart, liver, kidneys, and brain may develop around the fourth or fifth day, when the fever begins to subside. In some cases, these complications can even be fatal, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong warned.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control, the city recorded 1,097 dengue cases last week, bringing the cumulative number of cases since the beginning of the year to 25,774. The wards and commune with the highest dengue incidence rates per 100,000 population were An Nhon Tay Ward, Chanh Phu Hoa Ward, and Minh Thanh Commune.
As of the end of July 2026, southern Vietnam had recorded 53,428 dengue cases, up 38.9 percent from 38,474 cases during the same period in 2025. Nine deaths have been reported, seven of them involving patients aged over 15.
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