Number of dengue patients hospitalised in Bangladesh in 2019 crosses 100,000

The hospitals across Bangladesh have treated more than 100,000 dengue patients so far this year with a little over a month to go.

In the 24 hours to 8am on Friday, 73 patients with the mosquito-borne disease were hospitalised, taking the total number this year to 100,021, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

They were among 451 patients still being treated at hospitals, including 251 in Dhaka, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The hospitals have released 99,306 patients after recovery.

The DGHS initiated the much-criticised ‘death review’ process after the dengue outbreak had spread severely throughout the country.

After the review, the number of deaths due to dengue reported by the government until Friday was 129 after equalling the record 93 deaths reported in 2000 on Oct 10, according to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control And Research IEDCR.

The number of dengue patients hospitalised in the month of August this year alone was more than the figure of those admitted in last 19 years, with an average of around 2,500 patients hospitalised daily.

Dengue fever spread for the first time in the country in 2000. The government figure of patients suffering from dengue was 5,551 that year with 93 among them dying.  That was the highest number of deaths due to dengue over the past 19 years.

Doctor Borhan Uddin, an official at the DGHS, said the risk of dengue is getting lower than it was in July-August period as the dry season has arrived. But he urged the public to continue with precautions such as using mosquito nets while sleeping.

“The mosquito menace is less intense now, but the disease is still spreading as the patients are still there,” he said.