Dengue patient hospitalisation as well as death is on the rise in Bangladesh significantly as monsoon started.
The Directorate General of Health Services on Wednesday recorded 212 dengue patient hospital admissions in the 24 hours from 9:00am on Tuesday.
Including the latest hospital admissions, a total of 6,678 dengue patients were admitted to numerous hospitals and 30 people died of the viral fever across the country so far this year.
Of the total dengue hospitalisations, the DGHS reported 2,333 admissions during the first 18 days of June, which is the highest compared to the previous months.
At least seven deaths from dengue were recorded in hospitals across the country during the period.
During May, the number of hospitalisations with dengue was 1,773 while three people died of the vector born disease.
The dengue hospital admissions in April were recorded 701, what was 336 in March, 374 in February, and 1,161 in January.
Public health experts said that these were sharp increases in dengue cases in recent time across the country, especially in villages.
According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, monsoon started in the country on May 24. Since then, the ongoing rain is one of the second-most prolonged rain incidents.
The BMD predicted that monsoon this year might continue till October.
Entomologists viewed that controlling dengue had turned to be more difficult this year because a large number of cases were being reported from villages.
The local government bodies in rural Bangladesh, they observed, are not equipped to fight and contain mosquitoes while in rural settings it is not easy to combat the insects.
Golam Sarwar, entomologist at the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, said that mosquitoes spread in villages by breeding into holes of trees, on trees, and in bushes where spraying insecticides was not possible.
He feared that dengue would spread this time more quickly as the continuous rain will generate more breeding spots with the presence of the virus.
The local government bodies, including city corporations and municipalities, are responsible for mosquito control while the health department is responsible for providing healthcare.
According to the DGHS, 1,502 dengue hospitalisations, out of the 6,678 cases, were recorded in two city corporations in Dhaka聽 鈥斅� Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation from January to June 18.
Division-wise, dengue hospitalisation rate has been the highest in Barishal division followed by Dhaka.
According to the DGHS, at least 11 districts are at high risk of dengue, where over 80 per cent of the total dengue cases so far were reported.
The districts include Barguna, Patuakhali, Barishal (excluding the city corporation), Cumilla, Coxs鈥橞azar, Madaripur, and Chandpur.
In Barishal division, dengue hospitalisation was recorded 46 per cent of the total.
In Bangladesh, the city corporations have a health wing that conducts anti-mosquito drives, including spraying insecticides and fogging, while other local government bodies have not such organs.
Local Government Division additional secretary for Urban Development Wing AHM Kamruzzaman has said that union parishads have no mechanism to fight dengue while some municipalities have limited abilities in this regard.
鈥榃e have asked the divisional commissioners to spend from blocked allocations to combat dengue,鈥� he said.
He went on to say that what they could do now was sensitising people to the problem and engaging them in keeping their respective areas clean.
