Record high 1,246 dengue patients hospitalised in Bangladesh
Bangladesh desk: The daily dengue hospitalisation again set a new record this year as the highest 1,246 patients were hospitalised in the past 24 hours till Wednesday morning across the country.
At least five people died of the mosquito-borne viral disease in the 24 hours ending at 8:00am raising the death toll to 88 this year, said a press release of the Directorate General of Health Services.
Among the latest five deaths, four were reported in Dhaka and one in Rajshahi.
With the latest hospitalisation, a total of 3,791 people were undergoing treatment in different hospitals across the country including 709 in 53 city hospitals.
As the dengue situation has taken an alarming turn in terms of hospitalisation and deaths, the Directorate General of Health Services has urged people to be careful and focus on ensuring that their surroundings are clean.
It also urged people not to panic over the alarming rise of dengue, said a handout of the PID issued on Tuesday.
The DGHS also instructed the hospitals across the country to test dengue at Tk 50 instead of Tk 100 for next one month.
According to the DGHS data, so far 16,143 people were hospitalised with dengue across the country this year including 11,001 in the capital and 5,142 in districts.
The DGHS reports that dengue has already spread to 60 of 64 districts across the country this year.
Officially no dengue patient was identified in Gopalganj, Chuadanga, Sunamganj and Habiganj.
On Tuesday, highest seven people died of dengue.
The DGHS, in its pre-monsoon survey, released on July 4, found the highest mosquito density in the capital in the past five years.
This year’s mosquito density is also higher than that of 2022 when there were the highest-ever 281 dengue deaths, the DGHS data showed.
Public health experts, scientist and government officials earlier warned a bigger dengue outbreak this year unless preventive actions are taken.
The health directorate data showed that 8,165 people were hospitalised and 41 died in the first 12 days of July showing an unbridled rising trend of dengue infections.
Of the total official deaths this year, 69 were reported in Dhaka city, 12 in Chattogram, 3 in Mymensingh, two in Rajshahi and 1 each in Rangpur and Barishal divisions, said the DGHS release.
According to the data, 566 dengue patients were hospitalised in January, 166 in February, 111 in March, 143 in April, 1,036 in May and 5,956 in June.
At least six people died of the disease in January, three in February, two in April, two in May and 34 in June.
No deaths were reported in March, according to the data.
In 2021 and 2022, dengue cases were 28,429 and 62,382 respectively, according to the official data.
The dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000 when 5,551 dengue cases were hospitalised and 93 died of the disease, according to the DGHS data.
