Beijing has detected the first dengue fever case of the year, the city's health authorities confirmed on Thursday.

The patient and his family are still under medical observation, said a spokesman of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.

The 47-year-old man from Chaoyang District, in the city's east, fell sick on April 28, shortly after he returned from a trip to Malaysia, the spokesman said without giving the man's name.

The Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing diagnosed dengue fever, a potentially fatal, mosquito-borne disease, on May 8, and all close family members have since been under medical observation.

The spokesman said all the dengue fever cases detected in Beijing so far contracted abroad.

The city confirmed two dengue fever cases last September and the patients had been diagnosed after returning home from the Philippines and India.

The Ministry of Health said 1,019 dengue cases were reported in south China's Guangdong Province last year, but did not say if anyone died.

Dengue causes severe fever and can lead to nausea and rashes. It can cause severe pain in the joints and some strains cause internal bleeding and death.

The disease kills 25,000 people and infects more than 100 million each year in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, according to the Health Ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)