According to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), the number of severe cases this year is alarming because compared to 2019 – the year dengue fever broke out into an epidemic with more than 20,000 cases, the number of severe cases was only 38.

The number of dengue fever cases in Ho Chi Minh City in 2022 is increasing and higher than the same period in 2020 and 2021. Photo: HCDC

At hospitals, the number of hospitalizations is increasing, many patients are seriously ill.

Doctor Phan Vinh Tho, Head of the Emergency Department, Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Diseases Hospital, said that so far the hospital has received 47 cases of children and 283 adults.

Children’s Hospital 1 has since early April received many children with the most severe, life-threatening form of dengue fever, shock with multi-organ failure.

The initial symptoms of dengue fever are quite similar to those of other viral infections such as flu.

An adult with severe dengue fever is being treated at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

With the number of severe dengue fever cases increasing recently, experts say there is a high possibility that the actual number of diseases may be more than the number of recorded cases.

Associate Professor Nguyen Vu Trung, Director of Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, assessed that the increase in the number of cases is consistent with the epidemic cycle of dengue fever, an endemic disease in the city.

Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Tang Chi Thuong also predicted that the dengue fever situation would become complicated this year, especially after two years of the city devoting all its efforts to Covid-19 and entering a new normal period.

The city implemented preventive measures and fined individuals and units that did not implement disease prevention measures.

Dengue fever is transmitted from sick person to healthy person through mosquitoes.

The health sector recommends that every person, family, and agency eliminate larvae and mosquitoes to prevent dengue fever.

Cover jars, ponds, and water containers when not in use to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs and generating larvae and mosquitoes.