Via Thanh Nien Daily, a May 15 report: Expert warns of mutant dengue fever in Vietnam as 4 die. Excerpt:
Heath experts warn that mosquitoes in Vietnamese cities have exhibited an insecticide-resistance at the same time that climate factors have extended the dengue fever season year-round.
Mosquitoes carrying the virus have exhibited signs of resistance to several common common insecticides said Tran Thanh Duong, head of the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology during a Wednesday meeting in Hanoi.
Duong said the disease has killed at least four among the more than 8,000 people infected this year and will grow increasingly hard to manage since Vietnam hosts four strains of the virus.
People who develop immunity to one remain vulnerable to others, he said.
Duong said the disease has become active during all seasons due to climate and environmental changes.
Traditionally, the illness peaked in the south during June (the start of monsoon season) and in September in the north.
Duong said dengue fever has been considered an urban disease due to a dramatic surge of infections in large cities and rapidly urbanizing areas.
Health officials in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest metropolis reported more than 2,600 dengue fever cases this year, up nearly 28 percent year on year.
They've also warned that the disease may see its peak turn, this year, in its three- to five-year cycle.
The city health department is conducting sterilization and larva destruction campaigns through June.
Meanwhile, a May 16 report says Vietnam is at risk of a triple pandemic of hand-foot-mouth disease, dengue, and measles. And a 58-year-old man, fond of raw pig's blood pudding and a dish including pig intestines and raw vegetables, has been hospitalized with parasitic worms in his brain. The National Hospital of Tropical Diseases gets 30 to 40 such cases a year.
