The number of dengue fever cases in south China's Guangdong Province rose to 465 on Monday, but fewer cases are being reported daily, said the provincial health bureau.

By Monday, 412 patients had recovered and another 53 who were receiving medical treatment were stable, said the bureau.

Five cases were reported on Monday, down from around 30 cases daily from the late August to early September, said a source with Guangdong Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Luo Huiming, director of the center's Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Institute, said the falling temperatures and public efforts to eradicate mosquitoes were paying off.

Luo also warned the public to be aware that temperatures could rise in the near future, bringing more mosquitoes.

He said outbreaks in previous years had lasted till November.

Tang Xiaoping, head of the Guangzhou Hospital of Infectious Diseases, warned against panic, saying dengue was transmitted by mosquitoes only -- not by personal transmission -- and most patients recovered in a week.

Dengue is a serious infectious disease that causes high fever and can lead to vomiting and nausea. It kills 25,000 people and infects more than 100 million each year in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, according to the Ministry of Health.

The ministry has announced a nationwide monitoring of dengue fever and will gather details of outbreaks so the disease can be more quickly detected.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2006)