BUENOS AIRES, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Argentine government has brought the outbreak of dengue fever under control with only 38 new cases found in the last seven days, said the Health Ministry on Tuesday.

    Since the outbreak of the disease in Argentina three weeks ago, 156 people had been found infected, but none of them with the fatal hemorrhagic variant.

    Also the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the spreader of the epidemic, had not reached the capital, said the ministry, squashing recent rumors that had worried residents here.

    The Ministry said 588 people had sought medical assistance on Monday because of dengue like symptoms.

    Formosa on the Paraguayan border reported 197 suspected cases, more than any other region in Argentina. The ministry has declared Paraguay a high-risk zone after Paraguay reported an outbreak of the epidemic, which left 12 people dead.

    Dengue fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, is a serious health problem in many Central American and Caribbean countries. Its symptoms include high fever, nausea, rash, backache and headache. Most mainstream dengue cases are not fatal, but the hemorrhagic variant, which causes severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse, kills one in 20 of the infected.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) said the only way to fight dengue is to stamp out mosquitoes, which reproduce in stagnant water bodies such as puddles, lakes and reservoirs. Some 50 million people are infected with dengue each year, most of them in the tropical regions.