Macao Health Services have begun to take communicable disease control measures against norovirus and dengue fever after confirming several cases of infection.

At least seven children between the ages of three months and one year, all enrolled at St. Joao Day Care Center, have fallen ill with vomiting and diarrhea over the past week. Four of them have tested positive for norovirus.

Thursday's Macao Post reported that none of the sick children have become ill enough to require hospitalization.

As soon as the first symptoms were discovered on November 5, the day care center was closed and thoroughly disinfected, and parents instructed to keep their children at home.

Meanwhile, a woman aged 51 contracted dengue fever this month, the second case confirmed this year in Macao. The authorities have ordered mosquito abatement measures over a 200 square meter area around her home.

Health services predicted in April that dengue fever would probably reemerge this year, as it tends to follow a pattern of breaking out every three to four years.

Macao's government launched an anti-dengue fever campaign from April to mid-June to disinfect empty houses, remove build-up of trash and help citizens better understand prevention measures.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2004)