Spread of dengue fever down in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The recent spreading rate of dengue fever has been down by 60 to 70 percent in Cambodia, thanks to the multi-level anti-epidemic efforts carried out by the government and international organizations, local media said on Saturday.

Earlier this year when the disease maintained its peak of spread, some 1,000 people were contaminated on average each week, and recently the figure was brought down to 300 to 400, Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Daily quoted health official as saying.

The progress came along, after the Cambodian government, in conjunction with the anti-epidemic staff members at various levels, made concerted efforts to help residents clean their living areas and kill mosquitoes in large quantities, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank extended huge aid to the country in the field of epidemic containment, which also resulted in the back-off of dengue fever.

According to the statistics from the Cambodian Ministry of Health, altogether 370 children died of the disease while 35,000 people were hospitalized for contamination so far this years.