HO CHI MINH CITY, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of food poisoning sufferers in Vietnam in January fell nearly sharply against the same period last year, but that of dengue fever patients rose roughly 1.5 times, the Preventive Health Department said on Sunday.

Last month, 15 people suffered food poisoning, of whom two died. In January 2018, Vietnam reported 145 food poisoning sufferers with no fatality case.

The country detected 4,300 dengue fever patients, nearly 1,600 hand-foot-mouth disease sufferers, and 14 viral encephalitis cases in January, compared with the respective figures of 2,900, 1,100 and 14 in the same period last year.

Vietnam currently has 208,900 HIV carriers, of whom 95,370 have become AIDS patients, the department said.