BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Paraguay's public hospitals reported 1,400 cases of dengue fever, including three fatal ones, the Health Ministry said, according to news reaching here on Monday.

    In the suburbs of Asuncion, the South American country's capital, "new patients are received daily," the ministry said.

    Health authorities have repeatedly stressed on containing the breeding of Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which spreads the disease, by eliminating still water bodies where the mosquito breeds.

    The Health Ministry has launched a public campaign, dispatching 50,000 officials and military officers to help clean and fumigate homes, streets and squares.

    Dengue is caused by four closely related viruses and is usually spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Its symptoms include high fever, nausea, rashes, backache and headache.

    Most mainstream dengue cases are not fatal, but the hemorrhagic variant, which causes severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse, kills between 1 and 20 percent of the infected patients.