Nearly 13,000 cases of dengue fever (DF) occurred in Myanmar so far this year, a sharp increase from last year's 6,000, the local Myanmar Times reported Monday.

The figures represented the second biggest outbreak of the mosquito-borne viral disease since 2001 when it was reported as 15,695.

Of the 6,000 DF cases reported during last year, nearly half of which were in Yangon, especially in the Southeastern area of Thaketa, the Health Department said.

The authorities are urging Yangon residents to take preventive measures against the disease which is spread by a species of mosquito active during the day.

The authorities warned that the Aedes mosquito carrying the virus put residents in heavily populated areas at increased risk of contracting the disease than other urban areas, adding that there is no specific treatment or vaccine for DF.

DF usually breaks out during and after the rainy season and children aged under 12 were particularly vulnerable to DF.

Meanwhile, the health department has started launching a mass campaign in Yangon since last June on prevention and control of DF which has caused widespread infection in the capital.

The campaign includes carrying out sanitation activities every weekend and giving educative talks.

Broken out in Myanmar intermittently, the DF was first detected in Yangon in 1969 and a major outbreak of the disease followed in 1970, which was confined in Yangon until 1973. The first case in northern Mandalay division was detected in 1974 and major outbreaks had occurred in the division about every four years.

Source: Xinhua