Dengue fever continues to spread

The first case in the outbreak was patient NTT (born in 1970, residing in Toan Thang village, Dong Tien commune). On August 1, the patient had symptoms of fever, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint pain and bought medicine to treat himself at home but did not improve.

Illustration photo.

On August 5, the patient's family took him to Thanh Sen Medical Center for examination and treatment. There, the doctor performed a test and diagnosed the patient as positive for NS1Ag, a specific antigen of the Dengue virus that causes dengue fever.

Through investigation and epidemiological surveillance of the area surrounding the patient's home, authorities discovered a number of other suspected cases during the same period.

Specifically, about 4 weeks ago, patient NTV (born in 2012), from Long An commune (Tay Ninh) returned to his grandfather's house in Toan Thang village, showing symptoms of high fever, headache, fatigue and was treated at home by his family.

On July 15, patient V.’s grandfather also had similar symptoms with high fever, headache, and fatigue. His family took him to a private clinic, where he was prescribed medication and continued treatment at home.

Master Nguyen Chi Thanh, Director of CDC Ha Tinh , said that after detecting the cases, the unit coordinated with local authorities to urgently deploy epidemic prevention and control measures.

Authorities launched environmental sanitation, overturned water containers, collected waste, cleared sewers, and sprayed chemicals to kill adult mosquitoes in all households in the village.

CDC Ha Tinh also requested the local health sector and local authorities to step up propaganda on measures to prevent and control dengue fever on the loudspeaker system of communes and villages.

At the same time, it is required to strengthen monitoring of people with suspected symptoms of the disease, take them to the doctor promptly; absolutely do not let patients buy medicine to treat themselves at home, which is dangerous.

Up to now, Ha Tinh has recorded a total of 39 dengue fever cases in 2025. Of which, the first outbreak had 7 cases; the remaining cases appeared sporadically in many localities in the province.

Currently, dengue fever in Vietnam is entering its peak season. Since the beginning of 2025, the country has recorded more than 32,000 cases. In the current rainy and humid weather conditions, mosquitoes that transmit the disease are increasingly multiplying, increasing the risk of spreading.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is one of the fastest spreading mosquito-borne viral infectious diseases in the world.

With the trend of climate change, urbanization and increasingly favorable living environment for mosquito development, the burden of dengue fever is constantly increasing.

In particular, the Asia-Pacific region currently accounts for 70% of the total global cases. Vietnam is one of the countries most severely affected, especially during the rainy season from June to November every year.

According to experts, dengue fever is not only common but also one of the most dangerous infectious diseases, with a much higher incidence rate than many other diseases that can be prevented by vaccines.

Data from 2024 shows that the incidence of dengue fever is 11,500 times higher than that of meningococcal disease, 8.4 times higher than that of measles, and 3.1 times higher than that of hand, foot, and mouth disease. This raises an urgent need for proactive prevention solutions, in which vaccines play a key role.

At the recent scientific workshop to update information on vaccines against Japanese encephalitis and dengue fever, Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Quang Thai, Deputy Head of the Department of Infectious Disease Control (National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology) said that in Vietnam, all four strains of Dengue virus (DENV-1 to DENV-4) are circulating at the same time, of which DENV-1 and DENV-2 are dominant.

In the context of increasingly complex and widespread epidemics, there is an urgent need for early, accurate and timely diagnostic methods, thereby effectively supporting treatment and controlling the spread in the community.

Pharmacist Nguyen Duc Hoang Long, Director of AMVGROUP Company, said that one of the outstanding advances in the field of diagnosis today is the application of the new generation of Fluorescence Immunoassay (FIA) technique.

This technology provides high sensitivity and specificity and efficient data retrieval, helping to improve the quality of dengue fever diagnosis in medical facilities.

The product line applying this technology is the STANDARD F testing system of SD BIOSENSOR (Korea). This is a comprehensive solution including analytical equipment and testing kits, developed on the basis of modern FIA technology.

The system uses Europium fluorescent particles, an indicator with strong signal, high stability and excellent anti-interference ability. This effectively amplifies the signal, thereby improving the sensitivity and accuracy in detecting dengue virus antigens or antibodies.

Thanks to the application of scientific advances, the new generation of immunofluorescence machines has a compact design, not only meeting the testing needs of frontline hospitals but also, due to its flexibility, suitable for clinics, emergency rooms or frontline medical facilities, with a capacity of 1 to 70 tests per hour.

The devices are all equipped with touch screens, built-in thermal printers and the ability to connect to laboratory information management systems (LIS/HIS), allowing for efficient data storage and retrieval. In addition, the system also supports 2D barcode scanning to automatically identify test types, minimizing errors in operations and increasing accuracy in the analysis process.

One of the outstanding advantages is the ability to provide test results through the COI (Cut-off Index) of NS1 antigen and IgM and IgG antibodies to help distinguish primary and secondary dengue fever, an important factor in assessing disease prognosis.

This is an outstanding strength that helps doctors make more timely and accurate treatment decisions, especially in cases where it is necessary to closely monitor patients at risk of worsening.

In the context of dengue fever breaking out seasonally and tending to spread, according to Pharmacist Hoang Long, the application of modern testing techniques such as FIA plays a very important role in the disease prevention strategy.

The ability to detect early in the disease, clearly quantify, classify cases according to immunity levels, and support instant data retrieval makes FIA technology not only a diagnostic tool but also part of a comprehensive disease management system.

The co-circulation of multiple virus types increases the risk of reinfection and severe disease, especially in people who have had dengue fever. Therefore, a vaccine that protects against all four strains is an important goal in disease control.

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health has approved the use of the TAK-003 vaccine for people aged 4 years and older, without requiring pre-vaccination serological testing. This is an important step forward, helping to simplify the screening process and expand access to vaccination.

In the context of a complicated epidemic, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Quang Thai, vaccines are a proactive, long-term and sustainable solution, supplementing traditional measures such as killing mosquitoes, larvae and raising public awareness.

In the coming time, to maximize the effectiveness of the vaccine, according to some experts, Vietnam needs to develop a reasonable vaccination strategy according to the epidemic area, prioritizing high-risk age groups, and at the same time integrating close post-vaccination monitoring to continuously evaluate the effectiveness and safety in real-life conditions.

Interdisciplinary coordination, data sharing between countries and regular scientific updates will be key to sustainably reducing the dengue burden in the future.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/dich-sot-xuat-huyet-tiep-tuc-lan-rong-d352370.html