Noman Mosharef :
Health experts have urged the authorities to continue their anti-dengue campaign throughout the year to effectively fight against the mosquito-borne disease.
They also warned that the ongoing dengue situation in the country might prolong unless immediate effective steps are taken to face the threat.
The country has been witnessing an unexpected dengue outbreak this year, with authorities struggling to contain the disease due to lack proper vector control measure.
The dengue death toll has already reached 100, and most of the deaths occurred by dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). But the official figure is only 40.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier said that there is no specific treatment for dengue. But early detection and access to proper medical care keeps the fatality rates below 1 per cent.
On Saturday, three more people died of dengue and 1,460 others have been infected with the mosquito-borne disease across the country, showing a significant fall in the number of patients than previous day’s (Friday) 1,719.
Those who died were affected by dengue virus serotype 3 (DENV-3) or dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).
Over the past two decades, DENV-3 has also caused unexpected epidemics in Sri Lanka, East Africa and Latin America.
“The ongoing dengue situation in the country may linger till September unless crash programmes are taken to destroy the breeding grounds of Aedes mosquitoes,” Dr Mirjadi Mehjabin, Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) told The New Nation.
She said that Aedes mosquitoes, which is the carrier of the dengue virus continued to breed till August-September.
“If the breeding grounds of the mosquito are not detected and destroyed immediately, the mosquitoes would continue to breed and spread the disease till September,” she added.
When asked, Dr Mirjadi Mehjabin said, there are three types of dengue virus–serotype-1, serotype-2 and serotype-3. In previous years, dengue affected patients were mostly affected by type one and two virus. But this time the highest number of type-3 virus has been found causing concern to us.
Under this situation, she called upon the authorities to take prompt measures to destroy the mosquito breeding grounds in a bid to prevent the disease from turning into an epidemic.
“The authorities would face challenge to control the dengue disease in the next one week amid monsoon rain and unfavourable weather condition,” Prof. Sanya Tahmina, line director (communicable disease control) of the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) said this at a regular press briefing at the directorate in Dhaka on Saturday.
“If the authorities fail to destroy the mosquito breeding grounds by this time, the dengue situation may deteriorate further,” she added.
Prof. Sanya Tahmina urged all to join a concerted effort to eliminate the Aedes mosquitoes and suggested for conducting anti-dengue campaigns throughout the.
“We have to wait one more week to realise on what course the dengue situation will be. Now, we have to take preventive measures to keep away from dengue,” Prof Abul Kalam Azad, Director General of Health Services Department, told this at the media briefing.
According to the DGHS, a total of 51,476 people were admitted to hospitals since January this year after being infected with dengue virus.
Of them, a total of 43,580 people have already been recovered from the disease and about 7856 are currently undergoing treatment at different hospitals around their country.
On Saturday, a six-month old boy died at Dhaka Shishu Hospital while a woman died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Dhaka Shishu Hospital epidemiologist Kinkar Ghosh said that six-month-old baby, Ayazur Rahman, died after suffering from dengue hemorrhagic fever while undergoing treatment at the hospital around 2:00am.
The infant was admitted with dengue at the hospital on August 14.
At Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, a woman, Monwara Begum, 45, wife of Saiful Islam, from Mithamain of Kishoreganj, died of dengue about 12:00am on Saturday.
Monwara’s husband Saiful said she had been suffering from dengue fever for 10 days.
On August 13, she was referred by a local hospital to the DMCH, where she died early Saturday at its intensive care unit.
In Faridpur, a college student died of dengue while undergoing treatment at Faridpur Medical College and Hospital.
Sumon Bashar Raj, 18, son of Mizanur Rahman of Changpur village in Magura district, died at the hospital on Saturday morning.
He was a second year student of a government college in Magura.
Meanwhile, the government on Saturday launched a mobile phone-based application named ‘Stop Dengue’, using which anyone can report about dengue infection and suspected dengue breeding ground.
The app was developed by five ministries and division with the support from E-cab.
Speaking on the occasion, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam said stressed the need for an Integrated Vector Management (IVM) to tackle the dengue outbreak in the country.
‘We’ve to launch IVM to control the spread of the disease. I’m hopeful about submitting an IMV project within the next 7-8 days,” said Atiqul Islam.
