HANOI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Acute diarrhea has spread to Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City, lifting the total number of affected localities in the country to 16 since early March, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

    By April 9, a total of 854 people in 16 cities and provinces had been infected with acute diarrhea, of whom 122 have been tested positive to cholera virus, the newspaper quoted Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Preventive Medicine and Environment Department under the Vietnamese Health Ministry, as saying.

    Most of acute diarrhea sufferers are from Hanoi, Ha Tay, Hai Phong and Thanh Hoa in the northern region.

    The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health on April 9 said the first cholera patient in the city is a 71-year-old woman from Thu Duc district.

    Cholera sufferers are found in different provinces, not concentrating in few localities like some years ago. They are infected with cholera virus which is not involved in a specific source of foodstuff. In the past, cholera infection came from certain sources of foodstuff, the newspaper said.