Health workers in Peru

Video. Homes fumigated in Peru to eradicate mosquitoes spreading dengue virus

Health personnel wearing protective suits are going door to door in Peru’s capital, Lima, fumigating homes in a bid to kill the mosquitos spreading the dengue virus that has already killed 79 people in the country this year.

Health personnel wearing protective suits are going door to door in Peru’s capital, Lima, fumigating homes in a bid to kill the mosquitos spreading the dengue virus that has already killed 79 people in the country this year.

More than 73,000 people have been infected and 671 hospitalised in the latest outbreak to hit the country, according to the government. It blames the El Nino weather phenomenon.

The campaign started two weeks ago, with dozens of fumigators deployed in 20 of Peru's 25 departments, including the capital, with a potent insecticide.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that can provoke a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, severe bleeding, and sometimes death.

There is no specific medicine to treat it.