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Southeast Asian health officials have agreed to designate June 15 as Asean Dengue Day in a bid to raise awareness of and eventually curb the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease.

Rita Kusriastuti, the Indonesian Health Ministry’s director of animal-derived disease control, said on Friday that the date was chosen because that was the month when the number of dengue cases tended to peak in the 10 Asean member states.

She added Jakarta would host the inaugural Asean Dengue Day because it was the country with the most infections.

“We are conscious of the fact that this disease has had a serious impact in the region, particularly in Indonesia, and we want to raise awareness about this disease so that we can curb the number of infections,” Rita said.

“We hope countries outside Asean will adopt Dengue Day because instances of the disease are also occurring in the United States and Puerto Rico as a result of international travel.”

She added it could follow the example of Malaria Day, which was initially marked only in Africa but had now become World Malaria Day.

According to the World Health Organization, there may be as many as 50 million dengue infections annually throughout the world, with an estimated 500,000 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever requiring hospitalization.

The WHO says Indonesia had around 101,000 infections in 2008, more than 700 of which proved fatal. The country accounted for 48 percent of all dengue infections in Southeast Asia that year, down from 57 percent in 2006.

“The cases have tended to increase in Indonesia because of climate change and people’s reluctance to eradicate stagnant pools of water where mosquito larvae can grow,” Rita said.

“Each mosquito can lay 50 larvae, so you can imagine how many mosquitoes you’d have if millions of them were allowed to lay their eggs.”

She added that preventing the disease was as simple as draining open water tanks, covering receptacles of clean water and disposing of unused water containers.

She also said Indonesia’s hot, humid climate made it an ideal breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the infection.

“We have to anticipate a possible increase in cases in March and April because we’re still in the wet season,” Rita said.

However, she said the mortality rate from dengue in the country had dropped slightly over the past two years.

In 2009, 0.89 percent of patients died, while in 2010 it was 0.87 percent.

Rita said the densely populated cities of Jakarta, Medan and Bandung were home to a high number of dengue cases.

However, the Jakarta Health Office said it was making progress in tackling the disease.

Office head Dien Emmawati said the number of dengue cases in the capital had decreased significantly since a year ago.

She said there had only been 877 recorded cases of dengue through January this year, while during the same period last year the figure was 1,486 cases.

“It’s decreasing nicely, but we still need to stay alert for an outbreak,” Dien said on Thursday.

She added that the heavy rains lashing the city at the moment provided ample opportunity for the virus-carrying mosquitoes to breed, so her office would continue its campaign to eradicate standing pools of water.

Dien said that because the breeding cycle for the mosquito was seven to 12 days, if residents cleaned up their areas once a week, they would be sure to prevent the larvae developing into mosquitoes.

The health office is also working with community health centers (Puskesmas) to improve the handling of dengue cases.

Dien also said that those suffering from dengue should stay well hydrated and get a blood transfusion if their platelet count went too low.