HANOI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi will mobilize grade students to seek and kill larvae in their houses to prevent dengue fever which has so far hit over 18,000 people in the city.
Among the over 18,000 dengue fever patients in Hanoi, seven have died of the disease, the municipal Health Department said on Monday, noting that 90 percent of the patients are from 12 districts in the inner city, and the 10 percent from outlying ones.
To curb the outbreak, Hanoi has established mobile teams which are going door-to-door to spray chemicals and hot smoke to kill mosquitos and their larvae.
Last weekend, the teams found dengue virus-carrying larvae in hard-to-spot locations such as flower vases which are used to grow aquatic plants, and small puddles under fridges in some families.
Therefore, in addition to spraying chemicals at construction sites, schools, hospitals, markets and residential areas, Hanoi will mobilize grade students to detect and kill larvae in their houses.
Vietnam has so far spotted over 90,600 cases of dengue fever infections this year, including 24 fatalities, increasing over 60 percent and 41 percent, respectively against the same period last year, the country's Preventive Medicine Department said on Saturday.
