August 7, 2025
MEKONG DELTA – The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ recorded nearly 200 cases of dengue fever in July, reaching the alert threshold of an outbreak in the community, according to the city’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of dengue cases surged to around 100 cases in June from an average of 40 cases a month in the first five months of this year, said Dr Hà Tấn Vinh, deputy director of the centre.
In July alone, the number jumped to nearly 200 cases, the level of incidence in which the disease requires an urgent response, Vinh said.
As of July 27, the city had 1,188 dengue cases, of which the former Cần Thơ recorded 561 cases, an increase of 226 cases compared to the same period last year.
No fatalities have been reported.
The Cần Thơ City Pediatrics Hospital received a total of 554 in-patients with dengue fever in the first seven months of this year, up 51 per cent year-on-year, including 59 severe dengue cases.
Dr Nguyễn Huỳnh Nhật Trường, head of the hospital’s Dengue Department, said the number of dengue patients is rising, with seriously ill children aged between nine and 16.
Patients with a second infection of the virus can be more severe than those with an initial infection, Trường said.
Also in the Mekong Delta, Vĩnh Long Province recorded nearly 2,140 cases of dengue fever, including 48 severe cases, in the first seven months of the year, an increase of more than 1,140 cases compared to the same period last year.
Dr Trần Chí Công, deputy head of Vĩnh Long General Hospital’s Pediatrics Department, said that in recent weeks the number of hospitalised patients due to dengue fever has increased sharply.
He called for locals to be proactive in disease prevention and promptly visit doctors when there are symptoms.
The hospital’s Department of Infectious Diseases treated nearly 150 cases of dengue fever in the first seven months of the year.
Dr. Nguyễn Quang Vinh, deputy head of the department, said that medical facilities can perform tests to diagnose dengue fever when there are signs of fever for one to two days. Therefore, people should go to medical facilities to get the tests from the initial stage.
Early diagnosis and timely treatment will help reduce the risk of severe illness and death, he said.
Director of Vĩnh Long Province’s Department of Health Hồ Thị Thu Hằng said that health facilities have strengthened monitoring of the epidemic at the grassroots level and have fully prepared necessary medicines, supplies, and chemicals to promptly treat and handle outbreaks.
The sector has coordinated with departments, organisations and local authorities to step up propaganda in the community, and encourage locals to proactively implement epidemic preventive measures at home, she said.