The rate of dengue infection keeps rising outside the capital with Chattogram reporting the highest number of hospitalisation.

From January till yesterday, 4,616 dengue cases were reported in Chattogram, the highest among all districts except for Dhaka, according to the data of the Directorate General of Health Services. Chattogram is followed by Laxmipur and Pirojpur with 2,693 and 2,587 cases registered respectively so far.

Since the last part of July, according to DGHS data, the number of dengue cases outside Dhaka started to outweigh the capital, which is still continuing.

Over 1.38 lakh cases were reported in the country as of yesterday. Of them, 74,749 cases were recorded outside Dhaka.

Currently, a total of 9,127 dengue patients, including 5,181 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.

However, dengue hospitalisation goes mostly unreported as the health directorate considers data from only 57 public and private hospitals in Dhaka and 81 district- and divisional-level hospitals.

Experts blamed a lack of logistics, proper attention outside Dhaka and affecting new areas as the main causes of spreading dengue outside the capital.

"There is a mosquito management system in place in Dhaka which is absent at the district levels," said entomologist Kabirul Bashar of Jahangirnagar University.

He said all the local government bodies, from union parishad to the district level, will have to be equipped in the fight against dengue and the government will have to provide necessary funds for this.

"They will have to be given proper manpower, training and equipment," he said.

Prof Bashar underscored the significance of raising awareness, organising anti-mosquito campaigns, and implementing compulsory measures such as dengue testing and ensuring hospitalisation of individuals experiencing a second infection as they are more vulnerable.

Doctors and nurses of different hospitals in Dhaka said that they are getting more and more patients from the districts this year, a situation they never experienced in previous years.

Two-month-old Julfikar Ali hailed from Belabo of Narsingdi is one of them being treated at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute in Dhaka.

His mother died of dengue fever last week. He tested dengue positive on Sunday and was referred from a hospital in Belabo to Shishu Hospital the next day.

Julfikar's aunty Marzia Akhter said, "There was no proper treatment facility in our locality. After the death of Julfikar's mother, we did not take any risk. We took him to Dhaka for better treatment."

She claimed that she never saw any anti-mosquito drives in their locality.

GM Saifur Rahman, an entomologist at the National University, said the absence of surveillance in the district towns has been a major failure this year.

"The government must have effective surveillance to identify dengue hotspots. This will enable local government departments, community organisations, and educational institutions to conduct targeted interventions," he said.