Dengue Fever Kills 22 Vietnamese So Far This Year

Dengue fever has attacked 22,930 Vietnamese people so far this year, including 22 deaths, down respectively 29.3% and 29.1% on year, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Medicine Department Nguyen Van Binh said. Of the total affected cases, 50% from the southern region and 30% from the central. Meanwhile, most of the fatalities came from northern and central highlands provinces, the Dantri online newspaper cited Binh as saying Aug 4. The southern provinces recorded 1,750 more people contracting dengue fever last week, up nearly 6% from the previous week, of whom more than 300 patients from Ben Tre and 200 ones from An Giang. Dengue fever has attacked 1.291 people in the central city of Danang since early this year, seven times higher than the same period of last year, Binh said. The health official added that up to 80% of total 520 patients of the northern region come from Hanoi. Health experts warned that the number of dengue fever patients is likely to rise in the forthcoming months of rainy season, especially in Sept.