PHNOM PENH, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia saw 6,372 dengue fever cases in 2017, down 50 percent from 12,843 cases in a year earlier, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

Huy Rekol, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said the virus killed three children, aged between five and nine years old, last year, sharply down from 18 deaths in the year before.

"This is a success in fighting dengue fever," he told reporters. "It reflects that parents are well-aware of how to prevent themselves and their children from being bitten by Aedes mosquitoes."

Also, parents hurried to take their children to hospitals or health centers when they suspected that their kids had dengue fever, he said.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of an Aedes mosquito which is a day-biting mosquito. Its symptoms include sudden onset of high fever which can last from 3 to 7 days, severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting and rash.

The outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus usually begins in the rainy season from May to October.