During the first twelve weeks of 2016, Malaysia health officials reported more than 35,000 dengue fever cases.
A look at the number of dengue cases during the same period this year, we see roughly a 37 percent decline reporting only 22,000 cases.
Same with dengue related fatalities. There have been a total of 50 deaths related to dengue in 2017 to date, compared with 85 deaths for the same period in 2016, an approximate decrease of 40 percent.
Selangor state accounts for about half of the country’s cases.
In the past 50 years, the incidence of dengue worldwide has increased 30-fold, largely as a consequence of the growth of cities and increased travel.
Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.
People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page
There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However, new research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
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