Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta has so far this year witnessed 37 deaths caused by dengue fever, up 30 percent over the same period last year, according to local newspaper Youth Friday.

 

An Giang is the hardest-hit province in the delta with nine fatalities. Over the past four weeks, some 4,000 local people in the delta suffered from dengue fever. In the province alone, over 800 people contracted the disease.

 

An Giang and some other provinces like Dong Thap are hit hard by dengue fever because weather conditions there and residents' habit of storing water in containers at their houses favor the breeding of mosquitoes -- the disease's transmitter.

 

Local healthcare agencies are asking residents in localities nationwide, especially those in the southern region, to frequently clean up environment around their accommodations, including keeping water containers clean and killing mosquitoes and their larvae.

 

Vietnam reported 49,400 cases of dengue fever infections, including 51 fatalities, last year, down 32.7 percent and 49.5 percent respectively from the previous year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2006)