Addressing an Oct. 1 meeting, Director of the HCM City Preventive Health Department Nguyen Tri Dung, reported that five people have died of the mosquito-borne tropical disease since the beginning of this year. Dengue fever patients were detected in all 24 districts and precincts of the city.
 

District 2 took the lead, with 400 patients in the last week of September, while more than 300 people, both adults and children, were hospitalised for the disease, Dung said.

He also raised concern about a sharp increase in the number of hand-foot-mouth patients. Notably, an 8-month baby in Tan Phu district was killed by the deadly virus.

The hand-foot-mouth disease reached its peak at present, and is predicted to continue spreading in the coming months, warned Dung.