The Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control of the Ministry of Health hosted a session to help media practitioners better understand communicable diseases and related issues.
Information about the outbreaks of some communicable diseases including dengue fever and polio were presented at the meeting along with the role of the media in disseminating information on communicable diseases to the public, especially ethnic minorities in hard to reach areas.
“The Ministry of Health reported its successful activities designed to prevent and combat communicable diseases, especially dengue fever, hepatitis, pertectussis and polio,” said Dr Viengsavanh Kittiphong, a senior official of the Emergency Operation Centre.
Over 4,000 people have been reportedly infected with dengue fever since the beginning of this year.
Nine people have died of the mosquito borne disease since December 2015 with Champassak ranking as the hardest hit by the disease with more than 1,000 infected with the dengue virus and seven people dying from it in the province.
Both Khammuan and Borikhamxay reported over 500 people infected with the disease in each province with one dying of the disease in Borikhamxay.
As for Vientiane Capital, the dengue virus infected around 400 people and killed one person.
The disease has infected over 300 people in Savannakhet and over 170 people in Saravan with one dying of the disease in the province.
Over 120 cases of the infection have been reported in Attapeu, 97 in Luang Prabang, 89 in Vientiane, 79 in Oudomxay, 14 in Xayaboury, though the disease remains trivial in Bokeo, Xaysomboun, and Phongsaly with the combined number of infection cases in the last three provinces standing just slightly over 10.
No cases of the infection have been reported in the northern province of Huaphan.
Source: KPL
