Dengue fever cases up 63 pct in Cambodia in first 5 months

Cambodia has seen 957 dengue fever cases in the first five months of 2015, a 63 percent rise compared with 586 cases over the same period last year, a health official said Thursday.

"The incident rate is 5.9 cases out of 100,000 people,"Huy Rekol, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said in a statement posted on the center's website.

He said despite an increase in cases, the disease killed only one person during the January-May period this year, down from three deaths in the same period last year.

The official said the decline in fatal rate was thanks to parents for sending their sick children to hospitals timely and the improvement of treatment quality at public hospitals.

He said about 56 percent of the patients were children aged between 5 and 14 years old.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes 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, vomiting and rash.

In Cambodia, the outbreak of the disease usually begins at the onset of rainy season in May and lasts until October. Endi