The rate of dengue hospitalisations in Barishal division still remains high in comparison with the rest of the country as the authorities have failed to adopt timely measures to tackle the viral fever.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services, in Barishal division 7,555 people were hospitalised this year, including 2,801 cases in the current month鈥攆rom July 1 till 8:00am Sunday (July 27).
During the current month, 60 dengue patients were hospitalised in Rangpur division, 908 in Khulna division, 1,359 in Rajshahi, and 1,223 in Chattogram divisions.
But in Barishal, this year 4,451 people were hospitalised only from Barguna district, including 1,612 cases in July till Sunday morning, highlighting the division as the latest hotspot of dengue infection.
Barishal divisional health office Shyamal Krishna Mondal said that dengue patients in the division were high in number because the vectors were very active.
He said that identifying the disease and ensuring treatment was the health department鈥檚 responsibility which they were doing, but mosquito control tasks lay with the local government agencies.
Divisional commissioner in Barishal Mohammed Rayhan Kaosar said that they were working to destroy the Ades mosquito breeding spots which they had already detected.
He said that the dengue infection rate in the division was already in decline due to their interventions.
鈥榃e hope the situation to improve further within the next one or two weeks,鈥� he said.
Meanwhile, the health directorate reported that at least three people, including a one-year-old baby girl, died of dengue, and 409 others were admitted to hospitals across the country during the past 24 hours till Sunday morning.
The two other deceased are an 18-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man. The baby and the young women died in separate hospitals in Dhaka city.
Including the latest, this year 76 people died and 19,529 others were hospitalised with the viral fever.
Of them, 9,233 people were hospitalised in the current month till Sunday morning, while 34 others died of dengue during this period.
Regarding hospitalisations, in January 1,161 people were hospitalised, 374 in February, 336 in March, 701 in April, 1,773 in May, and 5,951 were hospitalised in June.
Of the deceased, 10 people died of dengue in January, three in February, seven in April, three in May, and 19 in June.
Dengue has arisen as a serious public health concern in the country over the past several years.
A dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000 when 93 people died and 5,551 patients were hospitalised, according to DGHS data. Dengue killed 1,705 people and sent 3,21,179 others to hospital in 2023 alone, against 853 deaths and 2,44,246 hospitalisations between 2000 and 2022, the DGHS data showed.
Last year, the country witnessed a severe dengue outbreak that resulted in 575 deaths and 1,01,214 reported cases. During that period 1,00,040 patients recovered from the viral fever.
