Number of dengue cases jumps to 219
Updated: 2006-09-05 06:51
The number of reported cases of dengue fever in south China's Guangdong
Province has risen by 95 since last Thursday, bringing the number of people
stricken by the disease this year to 219, said the provincial health department
on Monday.
A hundred and eleven people have recovered but 108 are still receiving
treatment in hospital, the department said.
No deaths have been reported, it said.
The 219 cases include 192 in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, 20 in
Yangjiang, five in Foshan and one in Zhuhai and Chaozhou, said the department,
which did not provide details on why there has been a sudden increase in the
number of new cases.
Dengue is a serious infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. It kills
25,000 people and infects more than 100 million each year in tropical and
subtropical regions of the world, according to China's Ministry of Health.
Since the 1990s, dengue fever has broken out occasionally in Guangdong and
neighboring Fujian province, mostly on a small scale. Large outbreaks took place
in Fujian in 1999 and in east Zhejiang province in 2004.
The local health authorities have asked residents to clean up their
environments to eradicate mosquitoes as there are no effective vaccines to
prevent the disease.
The ministry has announced a nationwide monitoring of dengue fever to gather
details of outbreaks so the disease can be more quickly
detected.
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