The nearly 20,000 cases of ostealgia fever in Cambodia last year were 46 percent lower than the year before

There were 18,987 cases of bone pain fever in Cambodia last year, down 46 percent from 35,390 the year before.

Cambodia's health ministry said in a report released Sunday that bone pain fever killed 46 people last year, down 53.5 percent from 99 in the previous year, Xinhua reported.

Leang Rithea, manager of Cambodia's national osteopathic fever Control Program and deputy director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, attributed the drop in cases to government efforts to distribute larvicide, mosquito repellent and other materials to families to prevent large-scale outbreaks of osteopathic fever.

Ostealgia fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of the Aedes mosquito. Symptoms include headache, high fever of up to 40 degrees Celsius, fatigue, severe muscle and joint pain, vomiting and rashes.

In Cambodia, the peak season for bone pain fever is the rainy season from May to October.