HANOI, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has detected 68,000 dengue fever patients, including 60 fatalities since the beginning of this year, posting a rise in both cases and deaths over the same period last year, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

    Most of the cases have been found in the southern provinces of Dong Thap, Tien Giang, An Giang and Ben Tre, whose weather conditions and local people's habit of storing water in containers at their houses favor the breeding of mosquitoes, the disease's transmitter, the agency quoted Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Medicine Department under the Vietnamese Health Ministry as saying.

    Local healthcare agencies are asking residents to frequently clean up environment around their accommodations, mainly by keeping water containers close and clean and killing mosquitoes and their larvae.

    In 2006, Vietnam reported over 77,800 cases of dengue fever infections, including 68 fatalities. Up to 84 percent of the infections and 91 percent of the deaths were found in the southern region.