Dengue claims 300 lives in 23 days of Sept

Dengue has already claimed the lives of 300 people across the country in the first 23 days of the current month.

Fourteen more deaths were reported from dengue in 24 hours till Saturday morning, raising the fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 893 this year.

During the period, 2,865 more patients were hospitalised with the viral fever, according to the DGHS.
Of the new patients, 814 were admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the rest outside the capital--indicating a worsening situation across the country, DGHS said.

A total of 10,572 dengue patients, including 3,794 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.

"This year, 893 deaths, the highest in a year since dengue was detected in 2000, were reported from dengue disease while 281 died last year," the DGHS said.

With the new cases, the total number of patients rose to 1,84,717 the DGHS statement said, adding: "This year, some 1,73,252 patients were released from different hospitals out of the total patients."

The authorities have recorded the highest number of dengue positive cases outside Dhaka in August this year, meaning the mosquito disease gripped the entire country.

August witnessed 71,976 dengue positive cases, the highest cases in a single month since dengue outbreak began in 2000 in the country, while 342 dengue-related deaths were reported in the current month, the DGHS statement said.

According to the health experts, the vector-borne disease hit Dhaka city in 2000 subsequently the dengue positive cases were detected in Dhaka city only. But the dengue disease is changing its nature and it is gradually spreading across the country, they said, adding: "All 64 districts of the country have witnessed positive dengue cases."

July alone recorded 43,854 dengue positive cases with 204 deaths, the DGHS statement read.

As of September 23, the authorities recorded 60, 909 dengue positive cases while 300 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease during the same period.

The prevalence of dengue cases in Bangladesh has increased ten times since last year and the deaths have increased almost thrice, according to a health expert.

"Dengue positive cases have increased ten times and death three times between mid-September, 2022 and mid-September, 2023," Professor Dr. Md Golam Sharower, Head, Department of Entomology, National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) told a seminar recently.

While presenting the keynote paper, Sharower explained that with global warming, our country's environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and rainfall are increasing, all of which play a key role in increasing the reproductive capacity of the Aedes mosquito.

He said there are unplanned urbanization, industrialization and ancillary activities such as construction of multi-storied buildings blocking waterways, dumping old cars and turning cities into mosquito sanctuaries.

The morphological, biological and behavioural changes that have occurred in Aedes mosquitoes as a result of all our unknown activities in mosquito breeding are highly favourable for Aedes mosquitoes to transmit dengue virus, he elaborated.

 According to the DGHS, Bangladesh reported 1,01,354 dengue cases, the second highest since dengue cases were detected in 2000, in 2019, 1,405 cases in 2020, 28,429 cases in 2021 and 62,382 cases in 2022.

It also added that Bangladesh recorded 179 dengue related deaths in 2019, seven deaths in 2020, 105 deaths in 2021 and 281 deaths, the second highest deaths, in 2022.    �Agencies