Health minister calls for patients to be hospitalised as dengue cases are ‘up fivefold’

Zahid Maleque says quick hospitalisation can prevent death from the mosquito-borne disease

Health Minister Zahid Maleque has urged people to get hospitalised quickly after contracting dengue, saying the number of cases of the mosquito-borne disease has increased fivefold from last year. 

Quick hospitalisation can prevent death from the disease, which has claimed 13 lives so far this year, the minister said at a press conference on Monday. 

He said separate wards were being set up in hospitals while healthcare workers were being trained to tackle the situation. 

The number of dengue patients hospitalised in the nearly five months of the year is 1,843, including 72 in the 24 hours to Monday morning. “If we compare the figures with last year’s data, it is an around fivefold rise,” Maleque said.   

He said his ministry shared data with the local government ministry so that it can strengthen mosquito-killing drives in areas with most patients. 

The minister also urged awareness among the public, asking them to keep their surroundings clean and free from stagnant water so that Aedes-aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue virus, cannot breed. 

After Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar has become a dengue hotspot this year, the Directorate General of Health Services said on Sunday. 

Apart from the hospitalisation of nearly 500 Bangladeshis in the coastal district, at least 1,066 cases have been reported in the Rohingya refugee camps. 

Experts believe the actual number of dengue patients and the death toll are much higher as the official figures leave out those who do not get hospitalised while many people do not get tested. 

Along with mosquito attacks, dengue cases increase during monsoon in the middle of the year in Bangladesh as stagnant water becomes the breeding ground of the Aedes-aegypti mosquito. 

Last year, however, the cases started to rise in August and continued the upward trajectory to cross 50,000 hospitalisations in mid-November with more than 750 new patients hospitalised in a day at the peak of the deadly outbreak. 

This year, the outbreak started before monsoon as parts of the country, including Dhaka, experienced sporadic summer rains. 

The DGHS on May 24 warned the public of the increasing dengue cases in hospitals this year. It said the surge at this time of the year is worse than past few years, advising everyone to be cautious and take preventive measures during the upcoming monsoon season.