Vietnam detected nearly 8,000 cases of dengue fever infections, including four fatalities, in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, a local health agency said Thursday.

Most of the cases were reported in southern localities like Ho Chi Minh City, Soc Trang and Dong Thap provinces, 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 cut the number of new infections, the department is asking localities nationwide to keep on cleansing environments around their accommodations, including keeping water containers clean and killing mosquitoes and their larvae.

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