About a month after the Philippines dengue fever outbreak eclipsed the 100,000 case mark, Thailand has done the same.

The Thailand Bureau of Epidemiology (BOE) reported an additional approximately 4,000 dengue cases during the past week bring the country total to 102,761 cases from all 77 provinces through Nov. 2.

In addition, four additional fatalities were reported bringing that total to 102.

The BOE reports the hardest hits areas are Petchburi, Rayong, Rachaburi, Uthaithani and Prachinburi.

Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.

People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person.

There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However, new research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.

Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch

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