LIMA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Seven new cases of dengue fever have been detected in recent days in the northern Bolivian province of Beni, authorities from the regional Health Service said on Friday, according to reports reaching here.

    Cesar Ligeron, head of the vector control program, urged residents to work together to eliminate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that spreads dengue.

    As intense rain in the region diluted the effect of insecticide, it's almost useless to conduct spraying there, he said.

    Instead he called on authorities from the regional capital Trinidad to clean up and collect garbage in areas within the city that could help the spread of mosquitoes.

    He said that his organization wanted daily reports on the appearance of new cases and asked anyone who suspected they have dengue to take a test provided by the National Tropical Diseases Service.

    One person has died this year from hemorrhagic dengue, in the eastern Santa Cruz province. Across all Bolivia there have been 270 suspected dengue infections, 47 of which have been confirmed.

    In 2006 there were 1,988 cases of classic dengue in Bolivia, or21 per 100,000, with the vast majority reported in Santa Cruz.

    Dengue is a viral illness that causes headaches, high fever, pain in the bones and sometimes a rash-like allergic reaction.

    Most dengue cases are not fatal, but the hemorrhagic variant, which causes severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse, kills between one and 20 percent of its victims.