The number of dengue fever cases in south China's Guangdong Province rose to 465 Monday, but
fewer cases are being reported daily, said the provincial health
bureau.
By Monday, 412 patients had recovered and another 53 who were
receiving medical treatment were in stable condition, said the
bureau.
Five cases were reported Monday, down from around 30 cases daily
from the late August to early September, said a source with
Guangdong Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
Luo Huiming, director of the center's Infectious Disease
Prevention and Treatment Research Institute, said the falling
temperatures and public efforts to eradicate mosquitoes were paying
off.
Luo also warned the public to be aware that temperatures could
rise in the near future, which will bring more mosquitoes.
He said outbreaks in previous years had lasted till
November.
Tang Xiaoping, head of the Guangzhou Hospital of Infectious
Diseases, warned against panic, saying dengue was transmitted by
mosquitoes only -- not by personal transmission -- and most
patients recovered in a week.
Dengue is a serious infectious disease that causes high fever
and can lead to vomiting and nausea. It kills 25,000 people and
infects more than 100 million each year in tropical and subtropical
regions of the world, according to the Ministry of Health.
The ministry has announced a nationwide monitoring of dengue
fever and will gather details of outbreaks so the disease can be
more quickly detected.
(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2006)