The dengue death toll has surpassed 200, giving a clear indication that this mosquito-borne disease is taking a serious turn day by day after the advent of the monsoon this year. With two new deaths on Friday, it already claimed at least 201 lives with over 490 patients hospitalized in different hospitals across the country.
Since the beginning of this year, a total of 40,895 dengue cases have been reported. Among them, over 3,522 patients are currently receiving treatment in various hospitals mostly in Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country.
What is worrying is that dengue situation has continued to worsen despite various programs adopted by the Local Government Division with the formation of a number of teams to control the spread of dengue in the face of increasing trends of both infection and fatality rates during the current month.
Additionally, in order to implement the mosquito eradication campaigns, 3,214 mosquito control workers have been deployed in all city corporations and high-risk municipalities all over the country. They have been implementing different activities like raising public awareness, eliminating mosquito breeding sites, conducting cleanliness drives and eliminating larvae and mosquitoes to protect citizens from dengue infection.
These coordination and monitoring teams were formed at an emergency meeting to combat the spread of dengue across the country including Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) areas.
But in the capital, dengue menace has continued to play havoc despite special measures undertaken by the different public and private hospitals and clinics. As a result, major hospitals like Mugda Medical College, Dhaka Medical College Hospital) and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University have been swelling with increasing number of dengue infected patients.
As a matter of fact, the highest number of dengue cases and deaths were recorded in the DSCC areas until now from January this year with at least 8,657 people infected. Of them, over 106 died of the disease in this locality.
DNCC is also a heavily affected area by the dengue disease. In terms of detection of dengue patients, over 8,067 people were diagnosed with dengue and 27 died of the disease since January this year in DNCC.
Citing the reason of rising cases and casualties of the dengue disease, a DSCC health officer pointed to the untimely heavy rainfall that occurs this year. This untimely rains, he said, was not seen in the last 4 to 5 years and this abnormal downpour is causing disruptions to mosquito eradication activities.
Climate change is another factor that is causing rising temperature, heavy rainfall and changing mosquito breeding cycles. This is why dengue scourge is likely to take a turn for the worse in the future as changing climate makes more areas hospitable for the mosquitoes in Bangladesh as it is world's one of the most vulnerable states to the climate change.
