Over 170 Dead As Bangladesh Grapples With Dengue ‘Epidemic’
Bangladesh is grappling with a deadly dengue outbreak as heavy monsoon rains in the country cause widespread infections and fill hospitals.
Health experts in the South Asian nation of 170 million people say the disease has already reached an “epidemic” proportion, even though the government has not officially declared one.
Until Sunday night, at least 176 people – 31 of them children aged below 14 – had died of the mosquito-borne fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Wednesday was the deadliest day when 19 people died of the disease which has seen nearly 33,000 hospitalisations this year, says the DGHS data.
Officials said the death rate from the disease this year stood at an “alarming” five-year high of 0.53 percent, compared with 0.45 percent last year when a record 281 people had died of dengue in Bangladesh.
DGHS says 115 of the 176 deaths this year happened in the first 23 days of July. There were only 29 deaths last year in the same period.
Experts warn the situation could get worse in the coming days as both dengue hospitalisation and deaths in Bangladesh usually reach a peak in August and September.
“I think the outbreak of dengue this year has the same impact on people as it did in 2019, if not more,” ANM Nuruzzaman, physician and public health expert said.
He was referring to the year which saw more than a million hospitalisations – the highest ever in the country – and 179 deaths. Many in Bangladesh still call 2019 the “year of dengue”.
“The government should declare [this year] as an epidemic as well and take proper measures to stop the spread. Otherwise, it will get worse,” Nuruzzaman said.
On July 16, the Bangladesh Medical Association, the apex body for the country’s doctors, also urged the government to declare the dengue outbreak a “public health emergency”.
DGHS Director General Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, however, thinks it is too early to declare dengue an epidemic in Bangladesh this year.
“For declaring it an epidemic, we need to justify some more criteria. I don’t think we have reached that point yet. Besides, there is no point in creating fear among people by declaring it an epidemic,” Alam said.
Aljazeera/Oyenike Oyeniyi
