MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - Some 1,412 new cases of the severe mosquito-borne disease, dengue, have been confirmed by health authorities of south China's Guangdong Province, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Friday.
The provincial health and family planning commission stated that the total number of dengue infections is now 27,593, over 27 times the amount recorded during the same period last year, according to the newspaper.
The disease has been detected in 20 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong and killed six people so far, according to Xinhua. The province's capital, Guangzhou, has reported the most cases totaling some 23,484.
As of Wednesday, five cases of the disease have been reported in China's island province of Hainan with three people already discharged from hospitals and the remaining two receiving treatment.
The Fujian Province, Yunnan Province, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have also detected hundreds of dengue cases this year.
Dengue is a disease transmitted by the bite of a mosquito infected with one of the four dengue virus serotypes and affects between 50 million to 100 million people in tropical and subtropical regions every year, causing fever combined with muscle and joint aches. The illness is not transmitted directly from person-to-person and symptoms range from mild fever, to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and rash. There is currently no official vaccine or treatment against the disease.
