66 more dengue patients hospitalised in 24 hrs
Another 66 were hospitalised for dengue in 24 hours till Monday morning amid a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), reports news agency UNB.
Among them, 44 patients were hospitalised in Dhaka, DGHS said.
As many as 234 dengue patients, including 177 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
On Sunday, this year’s death toll from the viral infection rose to three with death the of two patients from Cox’s Bazar.
On 21 June, the DGHS reported the first death of the season from the mosquito-borne viral disease.
The dengue cases are on the rise in the capital allegedly due to insufficient measures taken by the two city corporations for preventing mosquito-borne diseases like dengue.
This year, the DGHS has recorded 1,789 dengue cases and 1,552 recoveries so far.
Although dengue – a leading cause of serious illness and death in some Asian and Latin American countries – was first reported in Bangladesh in 1964, the first epidemic occurred in 2000, claiming 93 lives that year.
It has since become endemic in the country, with outbreaks recorded every year since. Although for a three-year period at one point, the number of deaths from the virus fell almost near zero. Its most fatal year yet was 2019, when 179 died from the severe form of the disease.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it seemed to take a backseat, as only three deaths were reported from dengue that year.
However, 105 dengue patients, including 95 in Dhaka division, died in 2021.
Dengue is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas.
About 4 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, live in areas with a risk of dengue, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each year, up to 400 million people get infected with dengue while approximately 100 million get sick from infection, and 40,000 die from severe dengue.