Dengue outbreak continues, 981 more admitted to Dhaka hospitals

Over the past 24 hours, 981 dengue patients have been admitted to hospitals in Dhaka city. The virus has spread to other districts too, with 1353 new patients being admitted to hospitals all over the country.

The health directorate’s health emergency operation centre and control room on Friday afternoon released an update on the dengue situation. It stated that till 8:00am Sunday morning, 8,754 dengue patients were admitted in hospitals all over the country, of which 2,334 were new patients.

The government’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) on Sunday confirmed that another 11 persons died of dengue, bringing the official dengue death toll up to 40. According to Prothom Alo investigations, 124 patients have died while undergoing treatment in hospital.

When dengue patients were identified outside of Dhaka last month, the government stated that these patients had either come from Dhaka or had been travelling to and from Dhaka. However, it has been confirmed that many of the patients contacted the virus locally and had never been in Dhaka.

Entomologists have said there are Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in several of the country’s larger cities. These mosquitoes carry the dengue virus.

IEDCR bases its report on information from 10 government hospitals, 30 private hospitals and the offices of civil surgeons in various districts. There are no records of dengue patients undergoing treatment in many other private hospitals, outdoor departments of government hospitals and physicians’ private chambers. Official records show this year 41,178 patients were admitted to hospital, with 22,717 admitted in the first 11 days of August.

Outside of Dhaka, the highest incident of dengue is in Chittagong. The lowest incidence dengue is in Sylhet division.