China's Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) is to step up its campaign against outbreak of dengue fever, local media reported Monday.

The Macau Post quoted Tong Ka Io, director of Macau's Disease Control Center, as saying that the authority will be in a hard bid to raise public hygiene awareness and to intensify the eradication of mosquitoes.

The official reportedly urged local residents to get rid of stagnant water pools where the dengue fever-transmitting mosquitoes could breed.

Southeast Asia is currently facing a serious dengue-fever threat. Cases have been reported in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

Tong told the news paper that Macau recorded a number of " imported" dengue fever cases over the past years. In 2001, some 1, 400 residents came down with the fever in the region with a population of 450,000.

Dengue fever, in some cases, could be fatal.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)