HO CHI MINH CITY, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ten people died among 2,237 food poisoning sufferers in Vietnam between January and October, the country's Preventive Health Department said Monday.

In October alone, 680 people including over 350 students of a primary school in northern Ninh Binh province experienced food poisoning.

In the first 10 months of last year, Vietnam faced 93 cases of food poisoning which affected 2,874 people, of whom 20 died.

In the first 10 months of this year, the country detected 72,200 dengue fever patients, including 11 deaths; over 71,100 foot-and-mouth disease cases, including six fatalities; 689 viral encephalitis sufferers, including 20 deaths and 67 human rabies fatalities.

Vietnam currently has 208,600 HIV carriers, of whom 93,700 have become AIDS patients, the department said. To date, 98,100 people in the country have died of AIDS-related diseases.