BALI, November 9 (RIA Novosti) — Dengue fever has claimed 169 lives in Malaysia since the beginning of 2014 and until November 6, the number of infected continues to grow, Malaysian Health Ministry said.
According to the Ministry in the same period of 2013 the number of dengue victims stood at 62.
The number of those infected with dengue in 2014 has reached 88,200 as opposed to 30,770 in the same period of 2013, the Star newspaper reported Sunday.
Earlier this week Malaysian Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said that the number of dengue cases is expected to increase by the end of the year with the beginning of the monsoon season.
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.
This Fall, China, India and Japan also witnessed an increase in the number of dengue fever cases.
