BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese Ministry of Health announced Friday that it will start nationwide monitoring of dengue fever.

The aim of the move is to acquire epidemic condition nationwide and seize the rule of disease dissemination for early discovery and treatment of the disease, according to a statement from the ministry's information office.

Sixteen national monitor sites are going to be set up in southern provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, Hainan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,

Dengue fever is a serious infectious disease in tropical and subtropical regions. It kills 25,000 people and infects more than 100 million people worldwide each year.

Since the 1990s, dengue fever has broken out occasionally in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, mostly on a small scale. Large breakouts took place in Fujian in 1999 and Zhejiang Province in 2004.