Dengue fever cases jump in southern China

	Tweet

The number of dengue fever cases in China’s southern Guangdong province has more than doubled to 219 in the past week, half of whom are still in hospital, Xinhua news agency said late on Monday.

Of the 219 people infected, mostly since June, 192 were in the provincial capital Guangzhou, a city of 10 million, Xinhua said. “They are in stable conditions and there have been no fatalities,” the provincial health bureau said of the patients, according to Xinhua.

The cases involved the least dangerous form of the virus, which is endemic to the tropics.

Dengue is carried by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits the virus that causes fever, severe headache, joint and muscular pains, vomiting and rashes.

Chinese experts have blamed the recent hot and humid weather and inadequate anti-mosquito efforts for the outbreak.

Authorities have launched an anti-mosquito and city-cleaning campaign in the densely-populated Guangzhou.

A bigger outbreak sickened more than 1,000 people in Guangzhou in 2002 but none of those cases was fatal, local media said.

Small-scale outbreaks of dengue fever have been reported occasionally in Guangdong and the southeastern province of Fujian since the 1990s, Xinhua said.

RELATED STORIES:
Dual infection may cause serious lung disease   Idaho’s first case of West Nile virus for 2006   Africa lags in fight against TB, WHO report says   740,000 vaccines urgently needed to control outbreak of Japanese encephalitis   Get a whiff of this: Low-cost sensor can diagnose bacterial infections   Europe E.coli is toxic new strain, trade row grows   Study sheds new light on river blindness parasite   Thailand has two suspected human bird flu cases   Blacks less apt to respond to hepatitis C therapy   Failure to adopt new drugs fuels rise of malaria   Ten cases of ‘Ebola-Like’ virus in Sudan-WHO   Nosespray Vaccine Using Aloe Vera Has Exciting Potential

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]