Dengue more fatal for women
As many as 95 persons out of the 167 people dying of dengue infection so far this year are women.
According to data from press releases on the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) website, more men in the country are affected by dengue fever compared to women.
However, when it comes to the death toll, a higher number of women have succumbed to the disease.
The analysis also reveals that the working population is particularly susceptible to dengue, with a significant portion of the infected patients falling within the age group of 18 to 40 years.
Specifically, around 63.5 per cent of the infected individuals are male, and this year, out of the 167 reported deaths, 95 were women. Additionally, approximately half of all the infected patients belong to the age range of 18 to 40 years.
Between Friday 8:00am and Saturday 8:00am, 11 more people have died of dengue infection in the country. Nine of them were Dhaka residents while the other two were from outside the capital. With this, dengue death toll in the current year rose to 167. As many as 120 of them died in this month, between 1st and 22nd July.
In the last 24 hours (Friday 8:00am to Saturday 8:0.0am), 2,242 more people with dengue infection have been admitted to hospitals. Of them, 1,239 people have been admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka while, 1,003 more have been admitted to different government and private hospitals outside the capital.
In total, 30,685 dengue-infected people have been admitted to hospitals so far this year. Of them, 18,885 persons have been admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the other 11,800 persons have been admitted to hospitals outside of Dhaka.
Health minister Zahid Maleque, while visiting Mugda Medical College Hospital yesterday, Saturday, told journalists there, men and working population is being infected more because of their extensive outdoor-movements.
People are working outside in factories and offices. More people are being infected with dengue from there. He called upon these organisations to eradicate mosquitos.
The health minister said that there’s an extra pressure of dengue patients at Mugda medical College Hospital as there are dense population in the areas surrounding the hospital and those areas has turned into a ‘hotspot’ of dengue.
Probably adequate mosquito repellant, required to eradicate mosquitos in those areas, could not be arranged. He urged the city corporation to put emphasis on mosquito eradication, paying more attention to those areas.
The health minister believes the dengue situation has not ascended to the level of being announced as an state of emergency yet. He said that the situation is not so dire that patients are not receiving treatments. He hopes the situation will not take such a turn either.
Nevertheless, he emphasised the importance of vigilance and immediate action to control the situation.
Although Bangladesh has a relatively lower number of patients compared to other countries concerning its population, it is crucial to stay alert.
This year's count of infected patients is significantly higher, being 15 times more than the figures recorded last year.
As much as 25 per cent of the patients undergoing treatment at Mugda Medical College Hospital are children. In this concern, the health minister has called upon the schools to take measures for mosquito eradication.