Bangladesh reports one death from dengue, first in 2022

A dengue patient has died in a Dhaka hospital, the first fatality from the mosquito-borne disease this year amid a rising number of cases during early monsoon.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 June 2022, 07:04 PM
Updated : 21 June 2022, 07:04 PM

The hospitals in the capital admitted 27 dengue patients in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning. A total of 110 patients, including 106 in Dhaka, were in hospitals on Tuesday.

The death occurred at Central Hospital.

The Directorate General of Health Services said 456 dengue patients have been hospitalised in the first 21 days of June. The number of hospitalised dengue patients was 352 in the first five months of the year. Most of the cases were reported in Dhaka.

The larvae of the Aedes aegypti mosquito were found in more than 4.5 percent of houses in Dhaka in a survey ahead of the monsoon.

"We found slightly more larvae this time than in last year's pre-monsoon survey. The reason could perhaps be that people have become a bit less vigilant. They aren't being that cautious,” Prof Kabirul Bashar, the coordinator of the survey.

He warned that the density of the larvae will increase further when the rainy season begins.

The city corporations in Dhaka recently strengthened efforts to prevent dengue by punishing errant landlords or builders for allowing mosquitos to bread in stagnant water, and killing mosquitos and larvae.

More than 130,000 people were diagnosed with dengue in 2019 after over 24,000 cases in six years from 2013 to 2018, according to government data.

In 2020, a total of 1,405 people contracted the disease at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.