The minister made the requirement during a conference chairing on strengthening the prevention and control of dengue fever in 2019 in the South, held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 19.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ho Chi Minh City is witnessing the highest number of dengue fever cases in the country with 27,153 infections, an increase of 166.7% compared to the same period in 2018. Similarly, Dong Nai province also has a high number of cases - in the first six months of 2019, Dong Nai recorded 5,093 cases of dengue fever, 2.6 times higher than the same period last year.
"High number of infections will result in high number of deaths, so the immediate task is to limit the number of infections to limit the number deaths and stop the outbreaks," Minister Tien said.
She also asked for better communication campaigns in encouraging local people to often rinse water containers, such as tanks, jars and vases and remove discarded objects that contain rainwater to eliminate mosquito larva.
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Spraying chemicals to kill mosquito larva in Trang Dai ward, Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province. (Photo: VNA)
Regarding treatment, the minister urged for improving the work of filtering patients to help ease overload at central level hospitals, as local level medical facilities are still capable of treating patients who are not in critical condition.
According to the MoH, in 2019, epidemics are expected to continue to increase, especially in the South, the Central Highlands and urban areas with large population densities. Therefore, the ministry requires localities to organise stronger communication campaigns to guide locals on measures to prevent and fight dengue fever.
In addition to regularly organising large-scale mosquito larval eradication campaigns until the end of the year, hospitals need to classify patients to treat well in lower level facilities to ease overload at higher level ones.
