Worst Dengue Epidemic In A Decade Hit Cambodia In 2007 - 407 Dead, 16,000 Infected - Reuters

[hatrack]

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia suffered its worst ever outbreak of dengue fever last year and it killed 407 people, most of them children, the highest toll in nearly a decade.

Dengue, which causes fever, headaches and agonising muscle and joint pains, had infected nearly 40,000 people since the first outbreaks last May, Ngan Chantha, director of the Health Ministry's anti-dengue programme, said on Friday.

"It is the worst number of infectious cases ever in Cambodia," he said, noting the disease infected 16,000 people and killed 424 in 1998.

Thousands of sick children sought free treatment at four Swiss-funded hospitals last year, but doctors said they did not have enough resources to treat everyone.

EDIT

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31240620080104