The outbreak of dengue fever during monsoon is a regular phenomenon in Bangladesh, but in the last few years, the situation has worsened as the number of hospitalisations and death toll rose exponentially
Published : 10 Jul 2023, 01:51 AM
A senior Bangladeshi public health expert has termed the failure to contain the spread of dengue fever despite repeated warnings from figures like himself as institutional.
Dr Mohammad Mushtuq Husain, a consultant for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning under the IEDCR, also warned that dengue may remain prevalent round-the-year from now on as the winter in Bangladesh has been shortened and less chilly due to climate change.
“It’s [dengue] not a city-centred problem now as the outbreak spread to all corners of the country. [So far], they [the authorities] took a casual approach [to deal with the spread of the virus]. The government should acknowledge that it’s a ‘public health emergency’,” Dr Mushtuq said during an interview with bdnews24.com’s ‘Inside Out’.
A video of the interview is available on bdnews24.com and its Facebook page and YouTube channel.
The outbreak of dengue fever during monsoon became a regular phenomenon in Bangladesh, especially in the last decade or so, but in the last few years, the situation kept worsening as the number of hospitalisations and death toll rose exponentially.
The monsoon has yet to settle in this year, but the queue of patients suffering from the potent virus is getting longer each day.
As of Sunday morning, 12, 954 people from all age groups have been hospitalised with dengue symptoms, and the death toll reached 73.
The renowned public health expert offered his two cents regarding the unique features of the variants of the virus, which are more active this year.
MAJOR TYPES OF DENGUE
- According to Nature magazine, a renowned scientific journal, Dengue infections are caused by four closely related viruses named DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. These four viruses are called serotypes because each interacts differently with the antibodies in human blood serum. There are other dengue strains found worldwide.
- Serotypes are groups within a single species of bacteria or viruses with distinctive surface structures.
The government institution Dr Mushtaq consults for, IEDCR, recently carried out a small study by testing the blood of 200 patients with dengue symptoms, and the results indicated that at least 62 percent of them had been suffering from DEN-2 and the rest, 38 percent from DEN-3.
Dr Mushtuq said all four dengue virus serotypes are currently active in Bangladesh.
“We [health experts] very much suspect that with all the variants being spread very quickly, the death toll may surpass the tally of 2022,” he said.
In 2022, Bangladesh recorded 181 deaths, the highest total of dengue-related death in a single year since record-keeping began in the 1960s. In 2021, the death toll was 105.
According to medical histories gathered so far from this year’s hospitalised patients, the majority suffering from the deadly fever this year were diagnosed with either DEN-2 or DEN-3 serotypes, and they suffered from DEN-1 not so long ago.
Doctors working on dengue patients have observed that the effect of DEN-2 and DEN-3 serotypes is far more serious on patients who caught the virus for the second time than their predecessor.
The public health expert offered his medical expertise on the matter.
“The casualty increases when one person is infected twice by two different types [variants] of the virus. They cannot be infected by the same virus [variants] twice, but they can be infected by two different [variants] viruses, twice, even three times,” he said.
“So, [when that happens] they [patients] go to a shock, [since] some immunity developed by one type of virus. The attack by another type of virus [variant] causes an adverse reaction to the patient’s immunity system.”
‘IF KOLKATA CAN DO IT, SO CAN WE’
Dr Mushtuq advised the health authorities in Bangladesh to follow the ‘Kolkata model’ to permanently eradicate dengue from the country.
“Kolkata is very much like us [climate-wise]. The authorities there were able to get rid of [contain] it at least a decade ago. Dengue beams its head sporadically now and then, but not like [in] Bangladesh,” he said.
“The Indian city was able to get rid of dengue by recognising it as a policy-level problem, and made plans [long-term] to contain it [over the years], engaged responsible government agencies to make it happen.”
He also drew a parallel from the 1960s, when the government launched a five-year plan to deal with malaria, which in turn made the once-feared mosquito-borne disease almost non-existent in present-day Bangladesh.
“At the time, health authorities, local governments, and ministries like education, information, and home affairs made concerted efforts to eliminate malaria. If they could do it sixty years ago, why can’t we do it today [with advanced technology]?” questioned Dr Mushtuq.