Cambodia sees 83 pct drop in dengue fever cases in first half

Cambodia sees 83 pct drop in dengue fever cases in first half

PHNOM PENH, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has reported 1,005 dengue fever cases in the first six months of 2014, down 83 percent from 6,039 cases in 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-June period this year, the disease killed only 6 children, sharply down from 25 deaths over the same period last year.

"Sixty-seven percent of the patients were children aged between 5 and 14 years," he said, urging parents to have their children sleep under mosquito nets to prevent them from being bitten by mosquitoes.

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.

Ngan Chantha, director of Dengue Control Program at the Ministry of Health, appealed to households to fill in puddles around houses, which are sources of mosquitoes.

"As the annual rainy season has started in Cambodia, dengue transmission will also begin to increase, so it is necessary for parents to remove stagnant water in and around homes and put mosquito larval killer such as guppy fishes into water-jars to eliminate the sources of mosquitoes," he said.

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

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140704/cambodia-sees-83-pct-drop-dengue-fever-cases-first-half