The country has recorded around 20,000 dengue fever cases in the first 8 months, said the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health on August 26.
As the infection cases are on upward trend compared to last year, the Department reported that the disease killed 12 people. However, it decreased by 33.7 percent and mortality rate dropped by 50.6 percent if compared to the average infection cases from 2010 to 2014, said Dr. Tran Dac Phu, head of the Department of Preventive Medicine.
Currently, the number of infected people has increased in some districts in the North and Central Vietnam including Ho Chi Minh City, the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Soc Trang because of long lasting rain. In the capital city of Vietnam, 820 dengue fever cases have been reported so far.
The Department leader said that there have been various dengue fever viruses circulating in Vietnam; hence, people can re-contract the disease and they can be worse in the second illness.
According to the World Health Organization, around 100 nations and territories across the world having dengue fever with around 2.3 -3 billion people on risk of contracting the disease because they live in the region to have dengue transmitting mosquitoes.
Annually, approximately 50 – 100 million people contract dengue fever in the globe and the mortality is 2.5 percent. In the Southeast Asian nation, the disease usually happens in the South and it is periodical disease in the North. The disease will have more infection cases from July to November.