Cambodia sees sharp rise in dengue fever cases, with 38 deaths in first 9 months

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had recorded 21,568 dengue fever cases in the first nine months of 2023, a significant rise of 184 percent from 7,597 cases over the same period last year, a health official said on Thursday. "The disease killed 38 people during the January-September period this year, up from 14 deaths over the same period last year," Leang Rithea, National Dengue Program manager and deputy director of the National Center for Parasitology and Malaria Control, told Xinhua.

With the instruction from Health Minister Chheang Ra, the provincial health departments across the country have provided Abate, a chemical substance used to put in water pots to kill larvae, to households and sprayed insecticide to kill mosquitoes since August, he said. "We have been working actively with development partners and organizations to curb an outbreak of dengue fever in the country," he added.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of an Aedes mosquito, which is a day-biting mosquito. The disease causes an acute illness that usually follows symptoms such as headache, high fever of up to 40 degrees Celsius, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rash. Rithea urged parents to take their sick children to health centers or state hospitals within 48 hours if they suspected their kids were infected with a dengue virus. Also, he appealed to households to fill in puddles around their houses, saying that they are sources of mosquitoes. In the Southeast Asian country, the peak of the dengue epidemic period is in the rainy season from May to October.

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