Dhaka, Sep 14 (IANS): As Bangladesh grapples with an unprecedented dengue outbreak, as many as 52 people died from the infection in the first 13 days of September, marking the highest monthly fatalities recorded so far this year and raising serious concerns over the worsening public health crisis, local media reported.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the dengue death toll stood at 149, while 51,837 patients had been hospitalised until Sunday.
Health experts have attributed the rising dengue deaths to delayed hospitalisation, inappropriate treatment, and the heightened vulnerability of high-risk groups, with many patients seeking testing and medical care only after their condition turns critical, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Daily Star reported.
HM Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, said that the recent spike in dengue deaths is largely a consequence of the rapid increase in infections nationwide.
According to Nazmul, three broad sets of factors are behind the fatalities: viral factors, patient-related vulnerabilities and treatment-related complications.
Mushtuq Husain, a public health expert, called for strengthening dengue care through a three-tier system of primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare.
On Sunday, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sultan Salauddin Tuku warned that the dengue situation in Dhaka and other districts could worsen further in the coming months, urging people to stay alert.
“The risk of dengue may increase further in the coming months, so everyone needs to become aware from now,” Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted Tuku as saying.
According to a report in Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo, dengue has spread across all 64 districts of the country, with several hundred people being hospitalised every day after contracting the mosquito-borne disease. Deaths from the largely preventable illness are also being reported almost daily.
The government has warned that the situation could deteriorate further in late September and early October, with infections expected to rise in at least 15 districts.
For the past one-and-a-half to two months, a section of public health experts and entomologists had been warning that the dengue situation could deteriorate further in September and October.
Speaking at an event at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on September 9, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Health and Family Welfare MA Muhit said that dengue infections had already begun to rise, with the peak period expected in the last week of September and early October.
Despite years of media reports and discussions over rising dengue infections and deaths, the government’s lack of commitment to dengue prevention has remained evident. The most glaring weakness has been the lack of coordination, Prothom Alo reported.
