Many severe cases, treatment costs can be up to hundreds of millions of VND
Never thought that tick mosquitoes would "find him" in the middle of the dry season, Mr. Minh (35 years old), a resident of an apartment building in Ho Chi Minh City, began to feel tired, uncomfortable and feverish. When he came for examination at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, he was diagnosed with Dengue hemorrhagic fever with warning signs such as writhing, severe abdominal pain.
Similarly, at Children's Hospital 1 (HCMC), Ms. Ngoc Lan choked up when she saw her 9-year-old grandchild dozing off on the hospital bed due to dengue fever.
I thought this disease was only in rural areas, going to the city has few mosquitoes, so it is difficult to get sick. After experiencing it, I realized that dengue fever is really dangerous and scary" - Ms. Lan shared.
Through records from end-line hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, many cases have been hospitalized in severe dengue fever. For serious complications, treatment costs can be up to hundreds of millions of VND, especially when requiring in-depth resuscitation techniques such as hemodialysis, mechanical ventilation or ECMO.
Worryingly, Dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemiology is undergoing clear changes due to the impact of climate change and the adaptability of tick mosquitoes. The disease no longer only appears seasonally but can circulate year-round, with a widespread scope across the country. At the same time, the disease is no longer limited to children but appears at all ages, including adults and urban residents.
BS.CKII Nguyen Thanh Phong - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases - said: "About 15-20 years ago, about 75% of dengue fever patients were children. However, in recent years, the rate of adults contracting the disease is increasing significantly, creating more pressure on the treatment system in both pediatric and adult hospitals.
Being subjective and self-treating incorrectly can lead to dangerous complications.
According to Dr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Head of Dengue Fever - Hematology Department, Children's Hospital 1, many people still mistakenly believe that dengue fever is just like a common flu and can be cured on its own. This subjectivity makes many people self-treat at home with wrong methods.
Some cases of using Paracetamol in overdose lead to acute liver failure, self-medicating with Ibuprofen increases the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, or intravenous fluids without medical indication, causing many dangerous complications. Folk remedies such as wind scraping and cutting can also increase the risk of bleeding and infection, making the disease condition more serious.
BS.CKII Phan Vinh Tho - Head of Department of Infectious Diseases D, Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, warned that in many cases, patients still look awake, can walk normally, but inside the body, plasma drain has occurred, causing blood to concentrate and blood pressure to drop rapidly.
If you only look at the outside and see that the patient is still healthy but are subjective, do not measure blood pressure and monitor closely, you may miss the golden stage for treatment" - the doctor emphasized.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control, in week 8 of 2026, the city recorded 452 cases of dengue fever, down 57.7% compared to the average of the previous 4 weeks. The total number of accumulated cases from the beginning of the year to date is 10,050 cases. Localities with high rates of infection for over 100,000 people include An Nhon Tay, Tay Thanh and Tay Nam.
Although the number of cases tends to decrease, medical experts recommend that people should not be subjective, need to proactively prevent mosquitoes, remove larvae breeding sites and go to medical facilities immediately when there are suspicious signs for diagnosis, monitoring and timely treatment.
