Beijing Municipal Health Bureau confirmed two dengue fever cases on Friday, the first cases of the disease in the capital for two years.

The two patients had already been discharged from Beijing Friendship Hospital, the bureau said.

One of the patients was 29-year-old man from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. He was diagnosed with the disease on Sept. 16 after returning from the Philippines.

The other was from north China's Shanxi Province, who was confirmed to have the illness on Sept. 13 after returning from India.

Both of them have returned to their hometowns, the bureau said.

Dengue fever was a tropical disease spread mainly by mosquitoes and Chinese tourists to southeast Asia and Latin America should be aware of the risks, said Gan Shaobo, a doctor with the hospital's tropical medicine institute.

South China's Guangdong Province saw 465 dengue fever causes this summer, but no deaths have been reported.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2006)