The central Department of Preventive Medicine and Environment has asked provincial health departments and preventive medicine centres nationwide to spray chemicals at least twice a year to kill mosquito larvae for the prevention of dengue fever.

Vu Sinh Nam, deputy head of the department, said the department had also asked provincial health departments to co-operate with other agencies to allocate more funds to prevent epidemics.

The Ministry of Health had been working with the Ministry of Finance to allocate more funds to provinces and cities in addition to the VND18.5 billion (US$1 million) they received this year to prevent dengue epidemics, he said.

Nguyen Thuy Hoa of the Central Epidemic Hygiene Institute said there would be a pilot project to spray chemicals in lakes and ponds to prevent the development of mosquito larvae.

Germ warfare

The institute had been carrying out research to use Wolbachia, a bacterium that infects arthropods to shorten the life spans of mosquitoes, he said.

Nam said Viet Nam has successfully bred and multiplied Wolbachia and the department would choose some areas where mosquito populations live to release the bacteria.

Nguyen Hong Ha, deputy head of the National Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, said hospitals around the country should have training courses to improve diagnosis and treatment skills for health workers to minimise fatalities.

According to a department report, 36,046 dengue cases were reported nation-wide by July 19, a 11.7 per cent increase over the same period last year, mostly in the southern region.

Nam explained that since most water in the southern region is brackish, residents use containers to store water, an important condition for the development of mosquitoes.

A major problem is that many provinces and cities face a shortage of chemicals, funds, and personnel to combat dengue fever.

Ta Van Chan, director of Vinh Phuc Province’s Preventive Medicine Centre, said volunteers are no longer paid, leading to a severe shortage.

Ha Dinh Ngu, director of the Thanh Hoa Province Preventive Medicine Centre, said it would be difficult to spray chemicals in the province’s 30 communes because there was not enough money to buy them.

Source: VNN