With rainy season approaching, dengue disease has started rearing its head across the country. But there have been little activities in sight from the government's concerned authorities and agencies until now to combat this deadly fever.
The dengue death toll has already surpassed 18 this year, with a new casualty recorded on Monday. Additionally, as per statistics from the Directorate General of Health Services, over 42 new dengue patients were admitted to different hospitals across the country on the day.
Of the newly hospitalised patients, 22 were from Barishal division, 11 from Chattogram and four from Dhaka division. With the latest figures, the total number of dengue cases reported this year has reached 2,318. During the same period, 30 patients recovered and were discharged from the hospitals.
In general, Bangladeshis a dengue-endemic country since the first recorded outbreak in 2000. Due to multiple risk factors, our country has been experiencing successive major dengue outbreaks in recent years owing to the fact that proper preventative strategies are not implemented.
This is why dengue plays havoc in Bangladesh almost every year. Last year, this disease took a serious turn, claiming at least 575 lives, with 1,01,214 reported cases. However, 2023 was the deadliest year when a record number of 1,705 people died of dengue, with the total number of registered cases surpassing 321,179.
This year too there is an indication that this mosquito-borne disease is likely to worsen with the advent of the monsoon in the absence of necessary preparations beforehand from the government side. Dengue generally spreads rapidly during the rainy season in Bangladesh. It is due to the climate conditions, particularly high temperatures and abundant rainfall which create ideal breeding environments for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary vector of the dengue virus.
Climate change is causing rising temperature, heavy rainfall and changing mosquito breeding cycles. This is why dengue is likely to spread further in Bangladesh as climate change makes more areas hospitable for the mosquitoes as our country is one of the most vulnerable states to the climate change in the world.
For this reason, dengue has been spreading to far-flung areas of Bangladesh. According to World Health Organization, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events is fueling the spread of the disease into new locations and extending dengue seasons in countries where the disease is already present. Evidently, dengue cases are increasingly found in Chattogram, Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi and Mymensingh.
Another important factor is that Aedes mosquitoes have increasingly become resistant to most commonly used insecticides, malathion and temephos as these insecticides have lost their efficacies for their repeated utilization on mosquito breeding places in Bangladesh.
Time is ripe for the government to take preemptive measures including procurement of effective larvicides to prevent the spread of dengue in the coming monsoon months.
