"Dengue fever, had affected 16 provinces in Indonesia as of April 30, killing at least 531 people, officials said. The present spread of the disease is very fast and two weeks ago only 11 provinces were affected, Dr. Thomas Suroso, director general of communicable disease and environmental health, and Dr. P.R. Arbani, regional advisor on malaria with the World Health Organization, said here Friday. Over 19,000 people have contracted the disease, which broke out in January this year. Experts predicted that it is expected to peak over May and June, but continued community awareness of the disease should prevent it from claiming more victims. Jakarta, has been worst hit by dengue fever this year. As of April 30, the dengue epidemic had killed 62 people in the city, said Suroso. Arbani said Jakarta's high population makes it very susceptible to dengue fever. "In fact, the current dengue fever epidemic has hit other parts of the globe. The wave of the disease has spread in Thailand, Myanmar and some countries in South America," he added. Last year, dengue fever killed 240 people and affected 13,207 others in Indonesia." ["Other news reports indicate that many Southeast Asian countries, particularly, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, are bracing for their worst dengue fever epidemic in years." - Mod.CHC] --CNN Interactive - 4 May (Edited) VIA Clyde Markon <docmarkon@worldnet.att.net> --ProMED-mail <promed@usa.healthnet.org>.