JAKARTA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The number of death toll of seasonal dengue fever since January this year in Indonesia has climbed to 380 out of 27,000 infected people, Health Ministry said here on Tuesday.

    Head of Sub Directorate of Arbovirosis in the ministry Rita Kriastuti warned to be cautious on the possibility of more attacks from the source of the disease the aedes aegepti mosquito as it still has a favorable environment to proliferate until the end of wet season in March.

    "The total death until today is 380 out of over 27,000 cases," she told Xinhua.

    "We must be cautious, the case will keep increasing in Indonesia as the country is categorized as an endemic area, and the peak (of the attacks) will be until March," said Kriastuti.

    However, she said that the government measures, such as campaign against the disease, had reduced the rate of the attacks compared to the rate at the beginning of January this year.

    She also said that the figures were still lower than in the same period last year.

    Earlier another senior official of in the sub directorate Cicilia Widyaningsih has said that in January this year, the death reached 253 out of 15,778 cases, while at the same period last year was 188 fatalities out of 18,547 cases.

    In February last year the death was 168 out of 15, 257 infected people, said Windyaningsih.

    The disease has attacked provinces in the vast archipelago country including in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java and East Kalimantan, South Sumatra and Lampung, the ministry has said.

    The health ministry has taken several measures to decrease the rate of fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease that spreads during the rainy season through the mosquito, according to an official of the ministry.

    Dengue fever is caused by a virus and transmitted through an infective female aedes mosquito which bites humans, usually just before sunrise and just before sunset.

    Symptoms in infected individuals include: on and off fever lasting for two to seven days; loss of appetite; nausea and or vomiting; abdominal pain; body weakness; bleeding tendencies, from nose and gums; persistent red spots on face; extremities and trunks, or skin flushing.