Bangladesh records over 41,000 dengue patients

The number of patients admitted to hospitals with dengue fever so far this year has crossed 41,000 after the outbreak started in the middle of the year shattering all previous records.

As many as 2,334 dengue patients were hospitalised in the 24 hours to 8am on Sunday as the daily rate of new dengue patients has returned to the rising streak after a brief slump of two days on Aug 7 and 8.     

The 41,178 dengue patients who were hospitalised this year include 22,717 in the first 10 days of August.

bdnews24.com has recorded 115 fatal dengue cases reported by doctors this year. The government count, which is based on reviews by a committee, has put the death toll at 40.

The number of dengue patients is rising more outside Dhaka now as millions have left the capital to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha at their home towns or villages.

Dr Ayesha Akter, an assistant director at the Directorate General of Health Services, however, said the rise of dengue outside Dhaka cannot be called ‘alarming’.

The possibility of a massive outbreak is “less” in the districts outside Dhaka as there are “fewer” Aedes aegypti mosquitos, the carrier of dengue virus, outside the capital, she said.

“We hope that the number of dengue patients will decrease much by September,” the official added.

She doesn’t see any problem in treating dengue patients outside the capital as she said doctors in the district- and Upazila-level hospitals received necessary training and equipment.

The number of dengue patients hospitalised in Dhaka in the 24 hours to Sunday morning fell to 981 from 1,065 in the previous 24 hours, but the amount rose to 1,353 from 1,111 outside the capital.

A total of 4,671 dengue patients were undergoing treatment at the hospitals in Dhaka and 4,083 in other districts.