Kathmandu, April 29 -- Over 800 people from 57 districts, including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur have tested positive for the dengue virus since January this year.

As dengue became endemic in Nepal years ago, meaning people get infected throughout the year, health officials no longer consider the virus an outbreak of a deadly infection.

"We don't call it an outbreak because the virus has already become endemic in our country," said Dr Gokarna Dahal, chief of the Vector Control Section at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. "But we have alerted all agencies concerned about the rising risks."

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The same vector also t...