Dengue fever kills 12 in Hanoi, cases rising

The Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) said the number of dengue fever cases has been rising rapidly in the capital this month. Infections were recorded in all districts, and over 1,000 new cases were recorded every week between October 7 and 20, the biggest increase this year. The number of cases increased by 3.2 times year-on-year, the center added.

While no death was recorded last year, 12 people have died due to dengue fever this year, the Hanoi CDC said. Infections were mostly recorded in suburban districts, it added.

Authorities said the dramatic rise in the number of cases was mostly due to the fact that people have not given enough attention when it comes to cleaning the environment, allowing mosquitos to thrive. Unfinished buildings with puddles, water reservoirs without lids, or gardens on the roofs all provide ideal shelters for mosquitos, they said.

People are also not going to hospitals to get early diagnoses.

Do Duy Cuong, deputy director of the tropical diseases center under Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi's largest public facility, said when someone has a fever, they would think of the flu or Covid-19, but paid no mind to dengue fever. Only when there are signs of low platelets do they go to the hospital, he said.

At the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the emergency ward has received dengue fever patients who only went to the hospital after falling sick for 4-6 days, and had to receive blood filtration.

The Hanoi CDC said the capital would enter the peak of dengue fever outbreak in mid-November.

Vietnam is having one of its worst years of dengue fever. The country recorded 224,771 cases as of the end of September, and 92 deaths and is the world's second hardest hit by the disease this year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) as of August has recorded 2,597,067 cases and 2,065 deaths. It said Brazil has recorded the most cases (1,910,657), followed by Vietnam (145,536), the Philippines (82,597), Indonesia (68,903), and Peru (57,469). Most deaths have been reported from Brazil (774), Vietnam (53), the Philippines (319), Indonesia (640), and Peru (72).

Vietnamese officials have said earlier that the number of dengue fever cases recorded in the country this year was only slightly lower than the whole of 1998, its worst year of dengue fever infections, when 300,000 cases and 400 deaths were recorded.