At least 34,483 dengue fever cases were reported in Cambodia in the first nine months of this year, a 166 percent increase compared with 12,972 cases in the same period last year, a report of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control showed Wednesday.

From January to September this year, the disease had killed 146 Cambodian children, up 147 percent compared with 59 deaths during the same period last year.

"The disease continues to kill between 3 and 5 children a week," said Dr. Char Meng Chuor, director of the center.

He explained that there were more deaths this year because parents had sent their ill children to private clinics first, and when the treatment was ineffective and the disease became more severe, they would send them to public hospitals, but it was too late for them to be cured.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. The disease causes an acute illness of sudden onset that usually follows symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rash.

In Cambodia, the outbreak of dengue fever usually begins at the onset of the rainy season in May and lasts until October.

Char Meng Chuor said to prevent the outbreak, the center has distributed some 270 tones of Abate (a chemical substance used to kill larvae in water pots) to households this year.

Last year, the country reported 15,980 dengue fever cases and 73 children were killed.