HCM City hospitals overrun with dengue patients

17:21' 10/11/2008 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Dengue fever is breaking out in HCM City and southern provinces. Many hospitals in the city are overloaded with patients. HCM City-based Children's Hospital 1 is also overloaded. HCM City still takes the lead for the number of dengue fever patients, with more than 11,000 by the end of October. This figure is nearly equal to that of the whole of 2007. In southern provinces, nearly 70% of dengue fever patients are children of less than 15 years old. Significantly, the number of patients under 12 months old is on the rise. Patients from southern provinces are coming to HCM City for treatment, resulting in the serious overload of hospitals. “Our province has a general hospital but I’m afraid that this hospital doesn’t have necessary, modern equipment and the doctors’ capability is poorer than doctors in HCM City. Traffic is also very convenient so I took my child to HCM City for treatment,” said Nguyen Van Dung from Ben Tre province. The health sector in the Mekong River Delta is strongly advocating preventive measures, including the spraying of mosquito repellents in densely-populated districts and waterlogged areas in communes.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2008/11/812850/