Cambodian gov't alerts public over upcoming peak of dengue fever

PHNOM PENH, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government has reminded the
public to caution against the upcoming peak of dengue fever, which has killed
two people nationwide so far this year, national media said on Sunday.

The rainy season started earlier this year, which fueled the spread of the
epidemic and brought the number of infected cases to 871 during the first four
months, almost two times the number in the same period of last year, according
to the Chinese-language newspaper the Jian Hua Daily on Sunday.

Usually, children aged from one to nine years were the most fragile group
to the illness, Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng was quoted as saying in the
report. He added that some 71 percent of the contaminated cases went to
children.

"People should frequently clean their water-saving tanks, kill mosquito
eggs in their tanks with pesticide and sleep in anti-mosquito nets," said the
minister.

According to official figures, in 2007, a rampant year for the disease in
the kingdom, 407 children died of it, out of a total of 39,851 infected cases of
minors.