Cambodian dengue cases down, but tourist hubs still at risk

Aug 7, 2008, 5:00 GMT

Phnom Penh - After an epidemic last year, Cambodia has reported less than half the number of cases of the potentially deadly mosquito-borne dengue fever during the same period in 2008, an official said Thursday.

Dengue Control Centre director Duong Socheat warned that the nation's main tourist hubs of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh remained amongst the highest risk areas as the country entered the peak of its monsoon season.

'For the period until August 1 this year we had some 3,800 cases compared to 10,000 cases last year, with 35 fatalities so far,' Duong Socheat told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

The notable decrease is due to the use of anti-larval medicine before the peak of the mosquito breeding season this year, said the health official.

'However there are places such as Siem Reap and Phnom Penh which are still above average in cases, mostly because people are moving around and carry the mosquitoes and the virus with them,' he said.

At least 407 people died from dengue fever in 2007 and tens of thousands more fell ill in one of the most serious years for the virus on record throughout Asia.

Dengue is spread by the day-biting Aedes mosquito and causes symptoms including extreme fatigue and bone pain, giving it the alternative name of break bone fever.

In some cases, dengue hemorrhagic fever develops, which causes rapid loss of blood platelets and can result in death from internal bleeding without rapid treatment.

The mosquito likes to breed in clean, cool, still water, such as that which collects around building sites, making major cities in rapidly developing Cambodia prone to outbreaks of dengue.