The World Health Organization is calling for improved mosquito-control measures in the Eastern Mediterranean after outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease dengue killed more than a thousand people in the region last year.
The disease, which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is particularly dangerous to people with weakened immune systems, the elderly, or people who have had close contact with an infected person, according to the WHO.
The death toll in the region, which includes Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Jordan, is the highest in the world since the disease was declared a public health emergency in 2003, the BBC reports.
The new measures being considered by the WHO are based on the principles of integrated vector management and call for improved vector surveillance and control capacity to prevent and eliminate mosquito-borne diseases, the WHO said in a statement.
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