Dengue fever continues to infect and kill an alarming number of people throughout the Mekong Delta, with some provinces reporting twice as many cases than they did over the same period last year.

Soc Trang Province also reported high dengue rates, with over 5,000 people hit by the mosquito-borne disease since the beginning of this year. Seven of them have died in the province where an estimated 170 patients are admitted to hospitals every week with the fever.

Only two deaths related to dengue were recorded in Soc Trang last year.

By June this year, 2,400 people in Soc Trang had contracted the disease, a 13 percent increase yet on year.

The delta provinces of Hau Giang and Bac Lieu as well as the city of Can Tho have recorded six dengue-related deaths in total.

In the north, Hanoi has been with its largest dengue outbreak in ten years, with over 8,000 patients reporting dengue-like symptoms, 15 times the figure for the same period last year, according to Ministry of Health statistics cited by local newswire Cong An Nhan Dan (People’s Police) early this week.

But 60 percent of those patients with classic dengue symptoms have tested negative for the disease and are suspected of having contracted the similar Chikungunya virus carried by the Aedes albopictus mosquito.

The ministry has yet to verify whether or not the cases are indeed Chikungunya.

According to the health ministry, over 74,000 people have acquired dengue in Vietnam this year, up 17 percent year-on-year. Cong An Nhan Dan said 58 of those patients had died.

Source: Tuoi Tre