Nearly 1,700 Hanoi hospital patients have had dengue fever this year, the city’s Health Department has said.

But Dr. Can Phu Nhuan, head of the Examination Department at the Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics, said the number of child patients had increased dramatically over the last few days.

The Pediatrics Hospital estimates that some 1,200 to 1,500 children have come to the hospital for examinations each day recently.

Nhuan said children had been badly hit by diseases, including dengue, due to recent flooding in Hanoi and northern provinces.

The floods have created stagnant bodies of water, perfect breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread the disease.

The agency said 81 percent of the city’s current dengue patients are Hanoi residents, with the rest coming from nearby provinces.

The fever has hit 170 communes and wards in the city’s 21 districts, the agency said.

Twenty southern cities and provinces have seen a total of 69 deaths from 58,635 dengue fever cases this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute reported early this month.

Source: SGGP