Cambodia sees 87 pct drop in dengue fever cases in Q1

PHNOM PENH, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had recorded 179 dengue fever cases in the first three months of this year, a 87 percent decrease from 1,393 cases over the same period last year, a health official said Friday.

Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said during the January-March period this year, the disease killed one child, down from 6 deaths over the same period last year.

"We have achieved good results in controlling the disease; however, more efforts are still needed to prevent the outbreaks of the disease," he said, calling for parents to have their children sleep under mosquito nets.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes.

Meng Chuor said the worst outbreak of the disease was in 2007, killing 407 children and again in 2012, killing 189 kids.

Last year, the country saw some 17,533 dengue fever cases, killing 59 children.