Fear for worsening dengue situation after deadly June

Bangladesh has witnessed 5,587 dengue cases and 32 deaths in the first 26 days of this month – a situation the country has never seen before, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The cases from the mosquito-borne viral fever were only 737 in June last year and only one died. Dengue infections and deaths were negligible in the previous two pandemic-hit years. In June 2019, there were 1,884 cases and seven deaths.

With the latest addition, dengue cases have stood at 7,609 and deaths at 45 across the country so far this year.

Experts fear that the dengue situation will take an worse turn in the days to come, mainly owing to sacrificial animal waste during the Eid-ul-Adha and frequent rains later on.

Although Bangladesh usually sees a gradual spike in dengue cases in June-September, the viral fever season started early in May this year, they said, and called for massive programmes for controlling mosquitoes and raising public awareness.

Jahangirnagar University Zoology Professor Kabirul Bashar said dengue patients are higher in number even before the rainy season this year. "The number will be on the rise until August. The number of patients does not decrease in the rainy season due to the nature of the infection," he told The Business Standard. 

"People know well about dengue, but there is negligence. I recently went on a field visit and found Aedes larvae in almost every house. City corporations cannot go inside houses and kill mosquitoes. This is the responsibility of everyone to keep their houses clean and free of accumulated water."

Stressing hotspot management, the professor said city corporations should conduct anti-mosquito drives in areas where there are higher dengue patients. "And if anyone develops a fever, he or she should do a test to confirm if it is dengue," he added.

According to the health directorate, the number of daily admissions of dengue patients in hospitals has been more than 300 for the past few days. It reached 500 last Saturday – the highest this year. 

A total of 1,385 dengue patients, including 1022 in Dhaka, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country, according to the DGHS. Of the Dhaka facilities, three Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Mugda Medical College and Hospital and Mitford Hospital have been serving the highest number of dengue patients.

Talking to TBS, different hospital authorities said the pressure of other patients in hospitals is declining ahead of the Eid holidays, but the number of dengue patients is increasing day by day. 

To face the increased number of dengue patients, many hospitals are making separate preparations.

"The pressure of dengue patients is increasing every day. The situation is very alarming," Mugda Medical College and Hospital Acting Director Dr Md Niatuzzaman told TBS.

Some 265 dengue patients were in his hospital as of Monday. The hospital allocated two separate 120-bed wards for adults and one for children dengue patients.

"We are ready to serve patients. Roster duty of doctors has been fixed to handle dengue patients on Eid so that nobody sees any problem," the acting director said.

"The number of patients in other different departments has already decreased by some 25%, but those of dengue are on the rise," Dhaka Medical College and Hospital Director Brigadier General Nazmul Haque said. 

"If the number of dengue patients increases, a separate ward will be opened," he told TBS.

The country recorded 281 dengue deaths in 2022, the highest after the 179 deaths in 2019. At the same time, the DGHS reported 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries last year.