Dengue fever kills 72 Cambodian children in 2011, up 89 pct

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — Cambodia’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that at least 72 Cambodian children had been killed by dengue fever in 2011, an increase of 89 percent, compared with the 2010′s deaths of 38 kids.

It said that there were 15,805 dengue fever cases reported in 2011, up 26 percent from 12,500 cases in a year earlier.

“The disease broke out in a large scale every three to five years and the year 2011 was the large scale breakout, that’s why the cases were on the rise and the deaths were almost double,” Ngan Chantha, director of dengue control at the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua over telephone on Tuesday.

He said the long-stayed floods that had submerged most provinces between August and October were also the main cause of the disease increase.

Ngan Chantha estimated that the country spent an average 7 million U.S. dollars a year for campaigns to prevent the disease and for medical attention.

Dengue is caused by 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 and rash.

In Cambodia, the outbreak of dengue fever usually begins at the onset of the rainy season from May to October.