Teenager dies of dengue in Chattogram

A teenage girl died of mosquito-borne disease at a private hospital in Chattogram on Saturday night, reports UNB.

The deceased was identified as Sumi Boidya, 19, daughter of Sunil Boidya of Khulshi area. Her younger brother has also been hospitalised with dengue.

Civil surgeon Azizur Rahman Siddique visited Sumi at National Hospital and her brother Arup Boidya, 16, at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

Azizur Rahman Siddique said Sumi was suffering from dengue shock syndrome. “We heard about her death around 8:00pm after we had visited her,” he said.

Sumi was initially treated at home and took medicine from her father’s pharmacy. “She might have survived if she were given proper treatment from the beginning,” the doctor said.

Arup is doing better and is expected to make a full recovery soon, he said.

Dengue fever usually causes severe flu-like symptoms, including high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, and a characteristic skin rash.

Although there is no specific treatment for dengue, early detection and access to proper medical care lowers fatality rates below one per cent, WHO says.

Bangladesh has been hit hard by a massive dengue outbreak this year like some other Southeast Asian countries. But the situation started improving in recent weeks.

Since January, some 89,616 people were hospitalised with dengue, most of them in Dhaka. Of them, 87,903 went home after full recovery.

Currently, 1,477 dengue patients, including 495 in Dhaka, are undergoing treatment at hospitals, the government said.

The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) received reports of 236 dengue-related deaths since the beginning of this year. It has reviewed 136 cases so far and confirmed 81 people had died of dengue.