健康英语新闻:Myanmar launches anti-dengue fever campaign in Yangon

YAGNON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has launched anti-dengue high fever campaign in seven townships in Yangon simultaneously as a prevention measure against the disease, according to the Health Department Sunday.

The campaign was carried out in the weekend in collaboration with health department staff and members of social organizations.

Dengue preventive and control measures were occasionally launched in schools and wards in Myanmar with the aid of World Health Organization, U.N. Children Fund, three Disease Fund, Global Fund and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

According to statistics, a total of 181 people died of dengue fever in Myanmar's Yangon region in the past five years alone, out of 19,000 such cases occurring in the region during the half decade.

According to earlier report, the number of people infected with dengue fever in the whole country in 2009 amounted to 3,129 with 37 deaths registered.

However, according to the Yangon City Development Committee, the city saw less dengue fever occurrence in 2010 with death rate reducing to one percent in the year from over six percent in 1970.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar health authorities are stepping up preventive measures against dengue fever in this sensitive rainy season by extending injection to people.

The authorities are also introducing medicine with better effect, combating larva, giving education talks on the prevention and control especially in markets.

Dengue fever mostly infected under-15 children, especially those between three and nine years old, but now such disease had also been found among some adult people, the authorities said, warning that dengue fever occurs regardless of age and season.

Myanmar, along with Indonesia and Thailand, suffers dengue outbreak most in Southeast Asia region that makes up 52 percent of the dengue-prone areas in the world.