Cambodia sees 59 pct drop in dengue fever cases last year

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia reported about 17,533 dengue fever cases in 2013, down 59 percent from the 42,362 cases in a year earlier, a health official said Monday.

The disease killed 59 children, representing a 69 percent decrease from the 189 deaths in a year earlier, said Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control.

Some 119 out of 100,000 people became ill with dengue fever last year, he said in a press release.

"Sixty-nine percent of the dengue fever patients are children aged between 5 and 14," he said.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. The disease causes an acute illness of sudden onset that usually follows symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rash.

Char also appealed to parents or guardians to have their children sleep under mosquito nets all the time so as to prevent them from being bitten by mosquitoes.