“Southeast Asia is scrambling to combat a deadly outbreak of dengue fever, the tropical illness transmitted by mosquitoes, which has hit parts of the region especially hard,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Health experts suspect that an unusually early rainy season that brought mosquitoes out in April, months ahead of what is expected, contributed to the seriousness of the dengue challenge,” the newspaper writes, adding, “Meanwhile, dengue is thought to be mutating as a result of immunity that has built up in the region.” As of Wednesday, Thailand had recorded 99,358 dengue cases, “triple what they were at this point last year,” the newspaper notes, discussing the number of cases in several other countries in the region. “Southeast Asian countries report heightened efforts this year to control” the mosquitoes that carry the virus, the Wall Street Journal adds (Chaichalearmmongkol/Cuneta, 8/16).