Vietnam has so far this year detected 4,800 cases of dengue fever infections, including two deaths, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, according to a local health agency on Monday.

The cases are detected in 20 cities and provinces nationwide, but most of them are in southern Ho Chi Minh City, and the southern provinces of Soc Trang, Dong Thap and Dong Nai, where weather conditions and local people's habit of storing water in containers at their houses favor the development of mosquitoes -- the disease's transmitter, said the Preventive Medicine Department under the Health Ministry.

To minimize the number of new infections, local health workers are encouraging residents to kill mosquitoes and their larvae more actively.

Vietnam reported 49,400 cases of dengue fever infections including 51 fatalities last year, down 32.7 percent and 49.5 percent from the previous year, respectively, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua