Dengue fever has killed 10 Palu residents over the past eight months, a health official said here. The last patient died in early August, Head of Palu city's Disease Surveillance and Control Unit, Falmah Pakasi, said. The local health workers had found 892 dengue fever cases in four sub-districts from January to August 2010, she said. Last February, the Palu city government had declared the dengue fever pandemic in its areas after 273 residents were positively infected and four died of this dengue virus, ANTARA reported. Falmah said the number of dengue fever cases reduced from February to May but increased to 119 cases in July. The dengue fever cases in August were expected to decrease. "In the first two weeks of August, there are only three cases. By the end of this month, the total number of cases is expected to be only 20," she said. The death toll of dengue fever patients this year increased from four in 2009 to ten, she added. In curbing the virus, people were urged to practice a healthy life style and avoid creating stagnant water ponds, which could be used by the Aedes mosquitoes as a breeding ground. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes transmit the virus to human beings. WHO estimated that some 2.5 billion people were at risk from dengue in which 50 million dengue infections were found worldwide every year.
