Vaccination against Covid-19 accelerated, dengue fever prevention intensified

On June 13, the Ministry of Health held a conference to accelerate the implementation of covid-19 vaccination and intensify the prevention of dengue fever in southern provinces and cities.

According to the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City, it is currently the peak of dengue fever epidemic in southern provinces and cities. Since the beginning of this year, the country has recorded more than 43,600 cases that contracted dengue fever, including 22 deaths (mainly children). In May alone, the incidence rate equaled the total number of infected cases over the first four months of 2022. The surge of dengue fever cases is mainly because of the lack of people’s awareness of preserving environmental hygiene and neglect of destroying mosquito larvae. In the coming time, the dengue fever epidemic would continue to increase and could break out on a large scale if measures are not drastically implemented to prevent and combat the epidemic.

In Binh Duong, since the beginning of the year, the province has recorded more than 4,000 cases, an increase of 9.8% over the same period in 2021, including 8 deaths. The provincial medical sector launched a campaign on total environmental hygiene, focused on hotspots of outbreaks; intensified communication, dissemination, and has closely monitored the epidemic situation to assess the situation and developments of the epidemic in order to provide timely interventions. The biggest difficulty of Binh Duong medical sector is the lack of grassroots medical forces as implementing prevention activities. After the peak of the Covid-19, many grassroots health workers quitted their jobs, causing many difficulties for dengue fever prevention activities in the community.

At this time, while the dengue fever epidemic is expanding, the Covid-19 has decreased significantly in all three criteria: infection cases, severe illness, deaths. As of June 11, 223,511,691 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were given in the whole country. In Binh Duong, on June 13, only two cases of mild Covid-19 were reported and treated at home.

Speaking at the conference, Associate Professor - Dr. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, Deputy Minister of Health, asked localities to continue to quickly carry out the vaccination against Covid-19, vaccination for students, children and workers in industrial parks. Localities need to strengthen the prevention and control of dengue fever; simultaneously organize campaigns to clean the environment, destroy mosquito larvae and drastically reduce the deaths caused by dengue fever.

Reported by Kim Ha – Translated by Ngoc Huynh