Malaysia recorded 44 deaths due to dengue fever in the first five weeks of the year, a senior health official said Saturday.
The death toll through February 7 was much higher than the 17 deaths reported for the same period last year, according to Noor Hisham bin Abdullah, director general of the Ministry of Health.
He said total of 15,039 cases of the mosquito-borne disease were reported nationwide during the first five weeks of 2015, compared with the 9,453 cases reported in the same period a year earlier.
Dengue, also known as "break-bone fever," causes internal bleeding, organ impairment, respiratory distress and sometimes death, particularly among infants and the elderly. Symptoms include nausea, headache and severe muscle and joint pain.