BANGKOK -- Thailand's Health Ministry said Monday it expects the number of infections from mosquito-borne dengue fever to soar this year, rivalling last year's record-setting rate of more than 100,000 cases, AFP reported.

Permanent Secretary Vinai Viriyakijja said the ministry was concerned about the continued high number of infections from the disease that took its highest toll yet in 2001 when unusual strains of the virus emerged.

The early onset last year of Thailand's rainy season, steamy springtime temperatures and an abundance of rainwater-filled flower pots, cisterns and bottles where mosquitos breed also led to a boom in the mosquito population.

"We are still concerned because the number of patients is expected to reach 100,000, about as high as last year," he said in a statement.

Vinai added that the ministry predicted dengue fever would affect 50 out of every 100,000 people in Thailand in 2002.

In 2001, some 100,653 people were infected with dengue fever, which has no cure and causes intense headaches, vomiting, muscle and joint aches and can be fatal. Of those infected, 216 died.

In fatal cases, victims often do not recognize they are infected and fail to seek proper treatment. They quickly lose blood plasma and go into shock after the initial fever passes.

Officials said last year that dengue fever previously reached epidemic proportions in 1999-98, and that the four strains of the virus had shifted to different areas of Thailand unleashing the historic wave of infections.

The outbreak was concentrated in densely populated urban areas such as the capital Bangkok, they said. 12-32-04.J01