Dengue deadly even in Dec

Despite December being a month which sees less dengue cases, the first 15 days of the month this year have seen 54 deaths and 6,722 cases.

In comparison, 27 dengue patients had died while 5,024 were hospitalised in December last year.

There is a necessity of advocacy meetings led by experts to establish a national strategy plan for dengue management. The plan should outline specific measures to control Aedes mosquitoes, identify the required insecticides, and determine effective methods.

— Prof Kabirul Bashar , Entomologist at JU

With the 2 new deaths and 190 new cases yesterday, the total number of deaths this year rose to 1,678 while the number of cases rose to 3,18,803.

Among the total deaths, 961 are women and 717 men. The 36-40 age group saw the highest deaths (164), while the 21-45 age group saw highest number of hospitalisations (45,040).

Entomologist Manzur A Chowdhury said government will have to chalk out a better plan to control Aedes mosquitoes in the upcoming years.

Addressing the spike in dengue-related deaths this year, public health expert Mushtaq Hossain highlighted the failure to break away from traditional health management approaches.

Prof Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist at Jahangirnagar University, emphasised the necessity of advocacy meetings led by experts to establish a national strategy plan for dengue management.

The plan should outline specific measures to control Aedes mosquitoes, identify the required insecticides, and determine effective methods. He urged the government to distribute the plan to all local government bodies for implementation.

HM Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, said there are multiple reasons for the high rate of dengue deaths this year, including virus, patient, and management-related factors.

Of the four types of dengue strains, the Den-2 serotype is mostly active this year and has a high severity. This is a reason for so many deaths this year, he said.

"The high infection rate among vulnerable groups, including the elderly, infants, obese individuals, pregnant women, and those with comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart, kidney, lung, and liver issues, is another contributing factor," said Nazmul.

Also, many patients are coming to the hospital late with shock syndrome, which is another factor for the high number of deaths this year, he said.

"Many patients are coming from outside of Dhaka. It takes several hours for a patient to reach the capital, during which they don't get enough fluids. Thus, many patients collapse even before they are admitted to hospitals," Nazmul said.

All experts underscored the importance of strengthening local health facilities to avoid the need for transferring dengue patients to Dhaka for treatment.a