Dengue fever is spreading across Latin America in what experts are calling one of the worst epidemics in centuries. 

Nearly three million cases of the mosquito-borne disease were reported in 2019, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

Health authorities in Bolivia say dengue fever has killed 10 people in the last week.

They are just some of the suspected 9,500 cases across the country where soldiers are fumigating and cleaning neighborhoods, mainly in lowland Santa Cruz.

Dengue is the world's fastest-spreading mosquito-borne disease.

"My daughter has been sick for three days. It's because of the mosquitos," said Mery Umpiri, the mother of sick child in Santa Cruz.

"She has a fever and pain all over her body and bones. Maybe she has the disease, maybe the mosquito has bitten her."

The disease causes flu-like symptoms but in its severe form can cause internal bleeding.

 Alfonso Tenorio, of the Pan American Health Organization, said "The epidemic at the close of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 in the Americas is one of the worst epidemics that we have had in all the countries that have tropical areas."

Worldwide the incidence of dengue infections has increased dramatically in recent decades.

So much so that this year the World Health Organization named dengue one of the top 10 global public health threats.

Bolivia and many other countries are seeing a surge in cases over the past year.

Robert Torres, an epidemiologist in Bolivia said his country was living through an epidemic "on the upward curve" which could last three more months.

"This is the largest epidemic of the last 300 years in America and in the last 10 years in Bolivia," Torres said. 

Mosquito larvae grows in stagnant water and it is the rainy season in much of tropical Latin America.

Authorities say emptying any containers holding water in which mosquitoes can breed is the most effective preventative measure against the disease.