Most of the hospitalised dengue patients in Dhaka are from 11 areas of the capital.

They are from Jatrabari, Mugda, Kadamtali, Jurain, Dhanmondi, and Basabo under Dhaka South City Corporation and Uttara, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Tejgaon, and Badda under Dhaka North City Corporation, said officials at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) at a briefing.

According to the DGHS, nine dengue patients died while 2,292 others were admitted to hospitals in 24 hours ending yesterday morning.

This year's death toll is now 176 and the total number of dengue cases is 32,977, of which 19,949 are in Dhaka.

The number of dengue cases usually starts rising in June, but this year it started rising in May.

Last year, the number of cases peaked in October.

A pre-monsoon survey of the DGHS, conducted on 3,150 homes in DSCC and DNCC between June 18 and 27, revealed that 15.47 percent of the homes under the DSCC and 20.04 percent under the DNCC had the larvae of Aedes mosquitoes, the carrier of the dengue virus.

Of the homes where the larvae were found, 43 percent were flat buildings. At least 18.21 percent of the homes, where the mosquito larvae were found, were under construction.

The survey also identified that stagnant water accumulated due to rain or other reasons created mosquito breeding grounds in 14.54 percent of the homes.

Buckets accounted for 9.28 percent of the mosquito breeding grounds, barrels 8.73 percent, flower pots and trays 8.03 percent, plastic mugs or pots 7.89 percent, and discarded tyres 7.76 percent.

About handling the pressure of dengue patients at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, HM Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor at the hospital, recently said they have around 450 beds under the medicine department and they have kept 72 of them aside for the dengue patients. They are also treating dengue patients in general wards due to the huge number of patients.

He said they have prepared a guideline with three categories: A, B and C.

Nazmul said patients who are infected with dengue but are stable and have no complications belong to Category-A. They send them home.

Category-B and -C patients are admitted to the hospital, Nazmul said.

He said they don't have enough beds in the Intensive Care Unit or the High-Dependency Unit and that was why they were sending patients there only when they are in critical condition.