Dengue spikes as anti-Aedes efforts fall short

Mujahidul Islam Shamim, a resident of Monipur, has been undergoing treatment at the dengue ward of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital from September 15.

He was initially admitted to a private hospital in Old Dhaka on September 13 with abdominal pain. At first, his dengue test came back negative, but on September 14 he was diagnosed with dengue.

Amena Ibtehal, sister-in-law of Mujahidul, said there are no mosquito control activities near their home at Madhya Monipur since the new government took over.

Mohammad Rasel Miah, who is undergoing treatment at Suhrawardy for the last two days, said anti-mosquito drives have been absent from his area in Agargaon and also on the hospital premises.

As authorities concerned are not taking effective measures to control Aedes mosquitoes, the number of dengue cases are rising rapidly, said patients and experts.

At least six people died from dengue yesterday, according to the data of Directorate General of Health Services. Also, 865 patients were hospitalised in the last 24 hours till yesterday morning. This is the highest single-day death toll recorded this year.

According to the DGHS, a total of 119 dengue patients died this year, while 21,079 dengue patients were hospitalised till yesterday.

Among the deaths, 36 took place within 18 days of September, while the number of cases was 8,238 during this time.

The number of deaths in August was 27, while number of cases were 6,521.

According to DGHS, 128 dengue patients are undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, 101 in Mugda and 90 in Suhrawardy.

Among the hospitals, 1,893 dengue patients have been admitted to Mugda Medical College and Hospital, 1,072 in DMCH and 190 in Suhrawardy hospital so far for this year.

Abdul Khaleq, senior staff nurse at dengue ward of Suhrawardy Hospital, said since opening of the dengue ward, they have had 79 dengue patients so far. Currently, 41 out of 50 beds in the ward have patients undergoing treatment.

The situation in DMCH is the same, as the number of dengue patients are increasing fast there.

A doctor of DMCH said they had opened a separate 20-bed dengue ward on July 10, now 53 dengue patients are undergoing treatment in this ward.

He said they are getting patients from Lalbag, Bongshal, Malitola, Savar, Ashulia, Keraniganj, Narsinghdhi and some other areas.

"I have been suffering from fever for the last 10 days. Me and my son were admitted to the DMCH two days ago," said Lokman Hossain, 57, a resident of Pallibidyut area of Ashulia.

His wife Lutfa Begum said their house owner, his wife and three tenants were also diagnosed with dengue.

"Finally, locals arranged anti mosquito drives in the area after the number of cases began rising," she said.    

HM Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, said, "This year we got many patients coming to hospital in critical conditions.

In many cases, he said, test kits give false results. "As a result, patients end up coming to hospital only when their condition is already critical."

Urging everyone to consult with a doctor just after a fever and doing Complete Blood Count (CVC) test on the third and fourth day even if they get a negative result from NS1 test.

He said patients will have to be careful about warning signs when they will remain at home like nausea, abdomen pain, diarrhoea, breathing problem, weakness, body temperature dropping and reduced urination.

 A patient will have to be admitted just after observing the warning sign, he said.

Entomologist GM Saifur Rahman advised the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to identify hotspots across the country.

He also suggested conducting a massive drive in and around the home of case positive houses collecting addresses of the dengue patients.