Dengue fever is spreading rapidly in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Dengue fever is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito infected with the dengue virus, and symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, and body aches appear after an incubation period of 3 to 14 days.
According to VN Express, a local media on the 29th, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Hanoi reported that the number of confirmed cases each week from the 7th to the 20th of this month exceeded 1,000. This is a 3.2-fold increase over the previous period. There were no deaths last year, he added, but 12 people died this year.
Dengue fever infections mainly occur in the suburbs of Hanoi. Although symptoms such as fever do appear, it has been found that there are many cases where they are mistaken for a new coronavirus (COVID-19) infection or the flu and do not receive treatment in a timely manner. The CDC in Hanoi predicts that the spread of the infection will continue and the number of patients will peak in mid-November.
This year, Vietnam has the second largest number of dengue cases in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country with the highest number of confirmed cases in August was Brazil (191657), followed by Vietnam (145,536) and the Philippines (82,597).
In Vietnam, the 1998 dengue fever epidemic resulted in 300,000 confirmed cases and 400 deaths. As of September this year, there were 224,771 confirmed cases and 92 deaths.
Reporter Kim Hwan-hwan [email protected]
