Hepatitis

Image/nguyenhuynhmai
Image/nguyenhuynhmai

Vietnam’s health ministry recently reported the viral hepatitis burden in the country of less than 100 million people. According to Xinhua report Monday, the southeast Asian nation currently has 7.8 million of hepatitis B patients and 991,000 hepatitis C cases.

Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, includes viral hepatitis types A, B and C. New, or acute, cases of types B and C can develop into chronic infections, and long-term chronic infections may lead to health problems including liver failure and liver cancer.

Among the hepatitis B patients, over 51,000 suffer from cirrhosis and over 14,000 others from liver cancer; and among the hepatitis C patients, more than 13,000 suffer from cirrhosis, and nearly 6,000 from liver cancer.

Dengue

Vietnam has reported nearly 60,000 dengue fever cases year-to-date and according to local media, dengue cases are up in the Mekong Delta.

Dengue fever has increased sharply this year among children aged between 10-15 in the Mekong Delta, especially in Can Tho city. Since the beginning of this year, dengue-related deaths have been reported in Dong Thap, Tien Giang and Tra Vinh provinces.

According to Bui Hung Viet, head of the Dengue Fever Department of Can Tho Pediatrics Hospital, the boom in infections is due to weather conditions in the early rainy season, which are favorable for the development of mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.

There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).

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