Five times more dengue patients outside hospitals

Dengue patients coming to the hospitals are way lower in number than the actual number of dengue cases. Government officials say that there are five times more dengue patients outside of the hospitals.

They were speaking at a seminar titled ‘Dengue prevention and control in Bangladesh: Way ahead’ on Thursday. Public Health Association of Bangladesh organised this seminar, held at NIPSOM auditorium in capital’s Mohakhali.

Apart from public health experts, high rank government officers, city corporation officials, entomologists, vaccine experts, physicians, researchers and journalists were present at the seminar.

While there were two articles presented at the seminar, there were panel discussions, open discussions and question session as well.

Participating in the panel discussion, director of communicable disease control (CDC) wing of the directorate general of health services (DGHS) Professor Nazmul Islam said that just like last year, monsoon arrived late this time. So the dengue outbreak this year could be delayed as well. The number of visible patients is surpassed by five times more patients in the community.  

He added, the idea if schools, colleges and madrasas can be involved in dengue prevention activities is being pondered upon. Activities have started with 20 types of partners. Awareness messages have reached 50 million (5 crore) people already.

At the initiative of the disease control division, three mosquito surveys are conducted annually. The surveys had been conducted this year too. At the time of the survey results being revealed it was said that there are risks of dengue outbreak being intensified this year. That’s exactly what happened in reality. Till Thursday, 78,028 patients have been admitted to hospitals for treatment while 364 persons have died.

Public Health Association of Bangladesh president professor Shah Monir Hossain said that the seminar had been organised to search for ways of dengue prevention and control, offer advices for the betterment of treatment and to make recommendations for the development of overall management.

Former director of DGHS’s disease control wing, professor Sanya Tahmina said in the first article, “It is necessary to work together with different government-private quarters for fighting dengue. But seeing the current situation, it doesn’t seem like we are united. The dengue issue has been overshadowed because of the elections. This poses a risk of the disaster intensifying even further.”

Mentioning that the current situation is not normal, she said that the World Health Organization (WHO) had announced a global emergency situation during the corona period. The dengue situation has turned into a state of national emergency now. She also commented that there’s a risk of dengue death getting doubled.

In the second presentation, head of entomology department at NIPSOM professor Md Golam Sarwar said that the mosquito repellents and larvae repellants have lost their effectiveness. Meanwhile, a 10-point recommendation or way out had been presented towards the end of the seminar.

The recommendation includes increasing awareness for dengue prevention, increasing public involvement for dengue control, fixing strategic priority to face the situation, increasing capability in health management, employing creative initiative for patient management in hospital, implementing coordinated management in mosquito control, distributing mosquito nets, regular mosquito monitoring, involvement of the whole government in dengue control, intensified supervision and regular evaluation of work.

Joining the panel discussion, advisor at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research Mushtuq Husain said that the country has experienced emergency situation several times for political reasons. But, there has been no instance of emergency situation being announced on medical grounds.

Moderator of the open discussion session, public health expert Abu Jamil Faisal said that any queries on the topic of dengue can be clarified by calling the Shashtho Batayon number, 16263.  

Public Health Association of Bangladesh general secretary SM Shadullah, organising secretary Nijam Uddin Ahmed, former chief health officer of DNCC, Brig Gen Md Zobaidur Rahman also spoke at the seminar among others.