Dengue fever killed 407 people in Cambodia last year, the highest number of fatalities in nearly a decade, a health official said Friday. Most of those who died from the disease were children, said Ngan Chantha, director of the National Anti-Dengue Fever Program. Dengue is a chronic problem in Cambodia but health officials say the spike in cases last year was due partly to the early arrival of the rainy season, which typically runs from May through November. More than 40,000 dengue patients were admitted to Cambodian hospitals last year, compared to 16,650 in 2006, when 158 people died. The death toll from 2007 was the largest since 1998, when 474 people died from dengue fever, the Associated Press reported.
