Dengue fever kills 81 in flood-hit Vietnam
HANOI - Dengue fever is renewing its grip in Vietnam as
devastating flood waters help to provide an ideal
breeding ground for disease-carrying insects, official
media said Friday.
Eighty-one people died from the disease this year, marking a
59 per cent increase on the previous 12 months, Tuoi Tre (The
Youth) newspaper said.
An epidemic of the mosquito-borne ailment, which has
coincided with disastrous flooding in parts of the country, has
also left more than 39,563 people sick,
The outbreak is particularly rife in the Mekong Delta region in
the south, where moist and humid conditions provide perfect
conditions for mosquitoes, the paper added.
Dengue fever, an infectious disease of African origin which first
appeared in Vietnam in 1969, killed 380 Vietnamese in 1998
but only about 50 people in each of the subsequent two years.
Meanwhile, the number of malaria-related deaths in Vietnam
decreased 44.9 percent and the number of malarial infections
fell 2.6% to 242,018 cases in 2001 compared with the previous
year, Tuoi Tre said.
Malaria is particularly prevalent in recently flood hit central
provinces and in the remote highlands, where most of the
country's of ethnic minorities live.
The Associated Press - December 28, 2001.
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