Hanoi (VNA) - The number of dengue patients in the capital city continuesto decline, but preventive efforts must continue, said Chairman Nguyen DucChung of the Hanoi People’s Committee.

Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai andChairman Nguyen Duc Chung onSeptember 4 chaired a meeting on dengue fever prevention with the city’sleaders.

Citywide, 861 fewer dengue patients were reported in the lastweek of August compared to the first week, according to official statistics.

The number of dengue inpatients also dropped to 2,200 per dayin the last week of August from 2,500 per day in the week before.

Asfor the inner city’s Hoang Mai district, which had the highest number of denguepatients in the city since the beginning of this year, only about 360 remainedin hospital compared to 468 at the peak of the fever’s season.

Reportsfrom the inner city’s Dong Da district also showed a downward trend in thenumber of dengue patients in the last three weeks. There were about 190 newdengue patients in the district in the last week of August, a decrease of 94patients compared to the week before.

Fewerdengue patients were also reported over the last week in the inner city’sdistricts of Thanh Xuan and Cau Giay, and the outer city’s districts of Ha Dong,Thanh Tri, and Thuong Tin.

All 584 communes and wards of the city’s 30 districts haveset up working teams to kill mosquito larvae and supervisory teams to monitorthe fever’s progress, according to reports. 
Speakingat the meeting, Chung requested all districts “not to loosen their grip onmonitoring the fever despite the reduction in its level of severity”.

[Dengue fever hotbeds under control in Hanoi]

Hehighlighted the essential measures that must continue to be applied to preventfurther spreading of the fever. These include providing citizens with constantupdates on the fever’s progress, spraying chemical substances to killmosquitoes in areas of outbreaks, ensuring the chemicals are high quality andwidely accessible for citizens, as well as strengthening hospitals’ denguetreatment capabilities.

Hoang Trung Hai, Secretaryof the Hanoi Party Committee, said that he appreciated the active involvementof leaders from the districts and other concerned authorities in dengueprevention. Their efforts had brought demonstrable progress, hesaid.

“However, since the disease is likely to last until November,there should not be any hesitation in applying preventive measures to make sureit will not surge again,” he said.  

Afterthe meeting, the city’s leaders visited and checked the dengue preventionprocess at the National Hospital of TropicalDiseases and a number of schools in Hai Ba Trung district.

About24,300 dengue patients have been recorded in the city from the beginning ofthis year. Seven of them died.

Thehighest numbers of patients were recorded in the four inner city districts ofHoang Mai (3,756), Dong Da (3,578), Hai Ba Trung (2,164), and Thanh Xuan(2,014).-VNA