Dengue death toll hits all-time high, authorities still insincere

Bangladesh recorded the highest-ever death toll – 943 – from dengue this year, but it failed to prompt the concerned ministries to play a proactive role in dealing with the menace.

The ministries of health and local government are still depending on conventional methods to combat the mosquito-borne viral disease. Public health experts, entomologists, and dengue specialists alleged that the authorities have left the situation to take its own course.

The local government ministry did not take any pragmatic steps in time to tackle the situation and seemingly allowed the disease to spread in all 64 districts.

The Directorate General of Health Services reported 15 deaths in 24 hours until 8:00 am on Tuesday, while the number of fresh cases was 3,123 during the period. With the new cases, a total of 193,881 people have so far been hospitalised in the country with dengue.

However, public health experts asserted that the actual number of dengue patients is four to five times higher than the figure of hospitalised patients. The situation has gone out of control and it may deteriorate further in the coming days.

Tahmina Shirin, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control, and Research (IEDCR), told Prothom Alo that intermittent rains and current weather conditions are conducive to mosquito breeding. The situation will not improve unless mosquito breeding sites are reduced.

With her previous experience, she fears that the situation may peak in October, as it did in the corresponding month of the previous year.

Public health experts suggest preventing a viral disease at the initial level when the infection rate remains low. However, the local government ministry did not pay heed to the suggestion and refrained from putting forth utmost efforts to keep the situation under control.

According to their survey, entomologists expressed fear at the beginning of the current year that there might be a dengue outbreak in the country. The two Dhaka city corporations have taken some measures to keep the situation under control, but there was no noticeable initiative from the local government ministry.

However, the initiatives undertaken by the city corporations in Dhaka bore no fruit due to a lack of proper planning and an efficient workforce, negligence of field-level workers, and the absence of proper monitoring.

In the aftermath, the outbreak of Aedes mosquito and dengue fever took a severe turn and spread across the country.

There were only 2,022 dengue cases until May, but the local government ministry did not take any prevention measures. The situation started going downhill in June, yet there was no noticeable initiative from the ministry.

Finally, the ministry allocated a fund to combat the dengue disease a month ago.

Sher Ali, additional secretary of the local government division, told Prothom Alo on Monday that they held meetings with deputy commissioners and civil surgeons of the districts with high dengue cases and provided necessary instructions.

Besides, the upazila nirbahi officers and union parishad chairmen have been instructed to carry out awareness campaigns in their respective areas.

A Tk 200 million fund has been allocated for mosquito prevention, cleaning operations, and awareness campaigns in 329 municipalities across the country. Of the amount, the first tranche – Tk 50 million – was released on 16 August.

Public health specialist Mushtaq Hossain said if the government does not declare an emergency, it should at least admit that the situation is no less than an emergency. The dengue situation would come under control if it works collectively with all concerned to control the mosquito and facilitate proper treatment.

"The government is operating as usual. They have left the issue of dengue control to nature," he added.