13 dengue fever fatalities in Taiwan

A total of 10,600 Taiwan residents this year have contracted dengue fever as of Monday, with 13 reported deaths, the island's disease control authorities said Tuesday.
About 97 percent of all cases were in Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan, the worst hit area with 10,100 people infected by the disease as of Monday, the authorities said in a statement.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne, potentially fatal disease that affects up to 100 million people in tropical and subtropical regions every year, causing fever and muscle pain.
This year Taiwan has experienced its severest outbreak of the disease in the past decade, exceeding previous years, when annual cases would not exceed 2,000, spokesman of the disease control authority Chou Jih-haw said.
Warm weather since April this year and an increase of rain fall have been blamed for the outbreak in Kaohsiung, as both conditions are conducive to the breeding of the mosquitos that carry dengue, Chou said.
A deadly gas blast that claimed dozens of lives in Kaohsiung in late July could have played a part in the spreading of the disease, he added.
The local government was urged to step up disease prevention and control efforts through programs to clear waste disposal sites and abandoned buildings.