Bangladesh gears up to combat dengue as caseload reaches nearly 21,000

DHAKA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The number of dengue cases in Bangladesh has surged to around 21,000 with 106 deaths so far this year, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on Sunday.

As of 8:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, according to the figure reported by the DGHS under the Ministry of Health, there were 12,900 new dengue cases recorded this month, and the death toll reached 59 including six more fatalities on Sunday.

The DGHS has so far this year recorded 20,878 dengue cases and 15,817 recoveries.

With the rising dengue cases daily, the Bangladeshi government is gearing up an anti-dengue campaign including raising public awareness and has taken special measures at the hotspots to curb the spread of the disease.

By region, according to the DGHS, Dhaka and its neighboring districts are still more vulnerable to the risk of mosquito-borne disease.

Khurshid Alam, the director-general of health services, said at a virtual media briefing on Sunday that they are exploring all possible ways to limit the spread of the disease.

"We don't think it is necessary to declare a public health emergency at this point," he said, as the June-September monsoon period is the season of dengue fever in the country.

In a proactive measure, he said authorities have engaged additional manpower to combat the threat of dengue larvae breeding following the current spell of rains intensifying record dengue outbreak in Bangladesh, capital Dhaka to be more specific.

Major hospitals and clinics in the city are now reportedly grappling with the influx of dengue patients.

Against this backdrop, bleaching powder was sprayed around the educational institutions and other establishments in parts of Dhaka Sunday like previous days to destroy the breeding spots of the mosquitoes.

Also, mobile courts of Dhaka South City Corporation Sunday fined at least 12 establishments tens of thousands of Takas for finding larvae of Aedes mosquitoes, the dengue vector.

Bangladesh logged 281 dengue deaths in 2022, the highest on record after 179 deaths recorded in 2019. Also, it recorded 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries last year.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes. The disease causes an acute illness that usually follows symptoms such as headache, high fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rash.