Dengue fever killed another child in Soc Trang Province Thursday as health officials warned poor preparation will increase chances of outbreaks later this year.

Dengue fever has claimed six lives in the province so far this year, all of them children. The fever killed only two residents last year.

Soc Trang now stands second after Kien Giang in the list of dengue fever infections among the Mekong Delta provinces, with more than 2,400 people infected this year.

The Delta region is more susceptible to outbreaks because it has many waterways and residents often store their water in large open containers, increasing mosquito populations that transmit the dengue virus.

More than 2,500 people in Kien Giang Province have contracted dengue fever so far, six of whom have died, Tuoi Tre reported Wednesday, citing Nguyen Van Hai, deputy director of the province’s preventive health center.

Meanwhile, the number of patients in neighboring An Giang Province has increased by more than 83 percent year-on-year to 780.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Health and Environment Department under the Health Ministry, told Thanh Nien Thursday that “the number of complications and deaths caused by the fever will rise further.”

Preventive health centers in the Delta provinces have forecast that dengue fever will develop “most complicatedly” in September.

Yet Nga said some localities have not made adequate preparations to prevent the vector-borne viral infectious disease. “They only set the budget for preventing the fever after someone has succumbed to it.”

Nga warned that the dengue fever situation is already getting complicated and could lead to severe outbreaks from September onwards, adding that many cities and provinces have reported infections twice or triple that of last year.

All four known strains of the dengue virus have been detected in Vietnam and a patient could contract more than one type, making the sickness more difficult to diagnose, he said.

The Health Ministry has sent inspectors to HCMC and provinces that reported increases in dengue fever cases this year including southern coastal Ba RiaVung Tau, south-central Binh Dinh and Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Vinh Long in the Mekong Delta.

Inspections have found that the localities are still late and ineffective in destroying vectors that cause the disease, Nga said.

Hanoi has reported more dengue fever patients in recent weeks, raising its tally in the year’s first half to 343, almost three times the corresponding figure last year, with 91 percent of them above 15 years of age.

The concentration of mosquitoes detected at many places has exceeded the level that can cause outbreaks, according to the city Health Department.

Hoang Duc Hanh, deputy director of the department, said most of the patients are residents living in neighborhoods with poor hygiene.

The HCMC Health Department held a meeting Thursday to review the fever situation in the city. It requested district health officials to check water containers in the area and destroy all hatches of mosquito larvae.

Around 200-250 dengue fever patients have visited city hospitals every week, the meeting heard.

Dr. Phan Van Nghiem of the city health department said that number was not a record high, compared to 600-800 patients a week last year, but the number of deaths was still high – five in the city so far this year compared to 12 last year and 13 in 2007.

The department has asked the city government to implement a clean-up campaign next month, especially in the outlying districts of Binh Chanh, Tan Binh, Tan Phu and Thu Duc, to prevent dengue fever and other diseases.

Around 25,770 people have contracted dengue fever in Vietnam in the first half of this year, 26 percent more than the same period last year while the number of deaths has jumped by 24 percent to 26, most of them children.

Source: TN, TT