Malaysia in uphill battle against dengue fever

One of the most familiar sounds in Malaysia's capital is the approaching drone of a fumigation fogger spreading thick white plumes of insecticide, part of so-far futile efforts to arrest a spiralling dengue fever outbreak.

Malaysia is among several countries across Asia grappling with a mosquito-borne virus that is proving tough to eradicate as it infects millions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that dengue has become one of the fastest-growing global health threats, contracted by up to 100 million people each year.

It kills up to 20,000 people annually, and 40 per cent of the world's population live in dengue-risk areas.

"The increase in dengue incidence and severity of the outbreaks is a global phenomenon, with a 30-fold increase over the past five decades," said Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed, a doctor in the WHO's Southeast Asia office, adding that eradication was "not seen as feasible in the near future".

The disease is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and causes debilitating flu-like symptoms, headaches, rashes and severe muscle and joint pains that earned its original name "break-bone fever". In serious cases, internal bleeding, organ damage and death can occur.