Margie Mason, Hanoi, Vietnam: Dengue fever is raging across Southeast Asia, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that the region could face the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in nearly a decade.

The disease, sometimes called the ''bone breaker'' illness because of the excruciating joint pain it causes, has flared across the region from ultramodern Singapore to poor Vietnam. There are four different types of dengue, and none have a cure or vaccine.

Cambodia is currently one of the most worrisome spots, where the disease has attacked about 25,000 people and killed nearly 300 children under age 15 so far this year. That's about three times more than the number of cases for all of 2005, according to WHO.

Sick children have overwhelmed ill-equipped hospitals there, forcing babies burning up with fever to wait for beds outside with IV drips attached to their arms.

The last major outbreak to hit Southeast Asia was in 1998, when about 350,000 cases were reported regionwide, including nearly 1,500 deaths. Indonesia and Thailand were not included in that tally.

John Ehrenberg, WHO's regional adviser on vector borne diseases, said it could potentially reach that level again this year.

''It looks like it might be a bad year,'' he said. ''I think we're in the building-up stage, but it could very well peak by August or September.''

Malaysia has seen a 50 percent jump in cases this year over the same period in 2006, with more than 1,000 patients admitted every week for the past month and 56 deaths recorded through June, according to Health Ministry figures.

In Indonesia, more than 100,000 infections have been reported this year, including 1,100 deaths. That compares to 114,000 cases and the same number of fatalities for all of 2006, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official who predicted the number will hit 200,000 by year's end.

More than a dozen children infected with dengue filled beds in Jakarta's Tarakan Hospital. Some had IV drips in their hands while others had tubes coming from their noses.

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Muhammad Wildan, 5, was hospitalized last week and remained in critical condition due to internal bleeding. Doctors said he's lucky his family did not wait any longer to bring him in.