Hanoi reports 110 active dengue fever outbreaks

So far this year, the city has had 2,800 incidences, up 4.7 times against the same period last year, according to Hanoi’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Thach That District suffered the most cases, at 483, followed by Hoang Mai, Bac Tu Liem and Thanh Tri with around 200 cases each.

Since July, the Department of Tropical Diseases at Hospital E receives about 20 dengue fever patients per day, and most are pregnant women, the elderly and people with multiple chronic diseases.

In almost all cases, patients have come to the hospital only when their conditions have developed severely such as coughing up blood, vaginal bleeding, black stools, elevated liver enzymes, pleural effusion, and hypotension.

At the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital, 120 children have been hospitalized for dengue fever in the year to date, doubling that of the same period last year. Of them, many have caught the disease just once.

Hanoi and other northern localities have received heavy rains for several weeks now. Since dengue is mosquito-borne, stagnant water in which mosquito larvae breed means the disease normally peaks at this time.

Doctors said people should get themselves checked if they have a fever of 39-40 degrees Celsius, severe headache, muscle pain, and eye pain.

In the case of dengue, the most dangerous period for a patient is after those symptoms have disappeared, they warned.

Vietnam has been trying to find an effective way to tackle dengue, one of the biggest killers among the 28 common infectious diseases affecting its populace.

The only vaccine available globally is not recommended for people who have not had dengue before.

In 2023, over 3 million cases and over 1,500 dengue-related deaths have been reported globally so far, according to the European CDC, an agency of the EU.