Dengue fever is spreading across Viet Nam with 39,000 cases reported in 51 cities and provinces nationwide, including 23 deaths, said the Health Ministry.

The number of cases are rising rapidly in HCM City, southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong, and Ha Noi.

Hoang Mai District in Ha Noi has been a hot spot for the disease in the capital, with about 2,000 cases in the district, according to local heath workers.

The disease has also broken out in southern localities where many workers live.

Most of those affected are poor and live in cheap, small and dank apartments with the surrounding environment polluted, heath workers said. Many also lack awareness of the dangers of the disease and preventive measures.

In southern Dong Nai province, the number of affected cases is rising rapidly. The provincial health care department reported that the disease had killed 4. As of this month, the province reported 5,000 cases of dengue fever, increasing nearly 180 per cent against the same period last year.

In Bien Hoa City, the number of dengue fever infections reached 2,100, rising 320 per cent compared to last year.

Nguyen Van Danh, director of the province's general hospital, told Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper, that "in previous years, most of the affected cases were children, this year, the disease was spreading rapidly and many patients are adults."

Southern Binh Duong province is facing the same situation, in the first two week this months, there were 499 cases of fever reported.

According to Quach Hoan My, a doctor at the Binh Duong Healthcare Preventive Centre, one of the reasons for the outbreak was that local people have neglected simple dengue fever prevention measures such as killing mosquito larva.

In HCM City, hospitals reported 592 new cases in one week.

In an online discussion with leading doctors from the preventive healthcare agency and hospitals, experts said that all fatalities were severe cases and those people came to see doctors too late.

Many people mistake dengue fever symptoms with other diseases such as sore throats or viral fevers.

They advised people who had a fever of over 39 degrees for more than 2 days to see a doctor.  VNS