In northern Hai Duong province, the director of the health department has announced that acute diarrhoea occurred in Tan Viet commune, Thanh Ha district and three patients tested positive for the Vibrio cholerae virus. They were said to have attended a local funeral along with 46 other people. Some of them were confirmed to have the disease’s symptom.

Dr Nguyen Huy Nga, the director of the Department for Preventive Health and Environment under the MoH, said July saw an increase in the number of acute diarrhoea and cholera cases and attributed this to food poisoning, and infections left from previous outbreaks.

The same day, the MoH said that the number of dengue fever cases in the country totaled around 20,000 by late July, mostly in the southern provinces with 16,000 cases, leaving 20 dead. The disease tends to develop in a complex manner and is likely to become a big epidemic. Although the northern region is not at the centre of the epidemic, it has recorded 200 dengue cases since the beginning of the year, mainly in Hanoi. The infected patients are often workers and residents living in guest-houses where hygienic is very poor.