No beds left vacant for dengue patients in Dhaka’s public hospitals

With dengue patients surpassing the capacity of all public hospitals in Dhaka, the situation may go out of control if it is not checked immediately, Secretary of Health Services Division Anwar Hossain Hawlader said today (October 17, 2022).

"Record number of dengue patients are being reported almost every day stretching the hospitals to their limit. Specially, there is no bed left vacant for dengue patients in the city's public hospitals," Anwar said while briefing reporters at the health directorate in Dhaka this noon.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital and other specialised hospitals have outnumbered with the dengue patients, he said. "But we cannot refuse services. We have been managing by hook or by crook," he added.

He also said that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Affairs does not want any crisis like it faced in 2019.

So, all hospitals have to introduce separate unit for dengue patients and ensure supply of the necessary fluids, he added.

Stressing on the dengue prevention, he said that they have asked the city corporations to conduct drives in the dengue hotspots.

Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, director general of the DGHS, and other health officials were present in the press conference.