Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien at the meeting (Photo: VGP)
During the meeting, Tran Dac Phu, Head of the Preventive Health Department under the Ministry of Health, said that since the beginning of this year, the country reported 90,626 cases of dengue fever, including 24 fatalities, a year-on-year increase of 67.8% in the number of infected cases and 7 in the number of fatalities.
In Hanoi alone, so far over 17,000 cases have been reported, including 7 fatalities, ranking second after Ho Chi Minh city in terms of the number of cases.
Hanoi has focused on carrying out drastic measures to fight the disease, especially the campaigns to kill larva and mosquitoes on a large scale.
At present, 30 districts have set up 26,038 larva killing teams and 4,600 inspection teams. The city has also received 215 chemical spraying machines as support from 22 localities, which helps spray chemicals for larva and mosquito killing across 165 of 384 communes and wards.
According to the Hanoi Department of Health, Hanoi has controlled 1,328 outbreaks, or roughly 80% of the outbreaks. One week after active chemical spraying on a large scale, the mosquito density reaches nearly to zero.
“However, forecast rainy weather in the days to come can facilitate the development of the disease if drastic measures are not continued,” said Mr. Phu.
Health Minister Tien urged Hanoi to continue spraying chemicals to kill larva and mosquitoes in an attempt to reduce the disease./.