Some 3,000 people attended a meeting on June 14 in response to theASEAN Dengue Day (June 15) with the aim of calling for the entiresociety’s engagement in fighting this popular disease.

The fifth national-level event was organised in Ho Chi Minh City by the Ministry of Health.

The World Health Organisation says dengue fever is one of the mostrapidly spreading infectious diseases in the world, and the ASEANcountries are among those most affected.

In Vietnam,dengue fever is recorded in almost all localities, but over 85 percentof the cases appear in the south. Despite a considerable decline inrecent years, the cases of and mortalities from dengue fever are stillhigh and the country still runs a risk of dengue fever epidemics.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said dengue feverprevention and control in Vietnam are facing numerous challenges asclimate change and fast urbanisation create favourable conditions forvirus-bearing mosquitoes to develop. Meanwhile, there haven’t been anyvaccines or specific medicine against this disease.

Preventive measures are key to fighting virus-bearing mosquitoes, henoted, adding that the question is to eradicate environments favourablefor mosquitoes to lay eggs and larvae to grow.

Hecalled on each individual to spend 10 minutes a week to take simplemeasures preventing dengue fever, such as cleaning water containers andputting lids on them, renewing the water in flower vases and tanks, andtidying up the house.

Following the meeting, medicalteams were sent to eight vulnerable localities, namely Can Tho, VinhLong, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in the south, and KhanhHoa, Da Nang and Dak Lak in the central region, to encourage locals toprevent dengue fever.

As part of the ASEAN DengueDay, the Pasteur Institute of HCM City and Sanofi Pasteur organised ashort-film making competition on the matter.

Information on dengue fever prevention was also publicised on buses in the city.-VNA