An unidentified viral fever is sweeping Dhaka and other districts in an alarming manner, infecting entire families and overwhelming hospitals, while the country has already been battling the outbreak of Covid-19, dengue, chikungunya, and typhoid.
Public health experts warn that while the mortality rate from the fever remains low, the illness is severely disrupting daily life, draining family incomes for medical tests and treatment, and costing the economy thousands of working hours daily.
Bangladesh Medical University former vice-chancellor and virologist Nazrul Islam said that the government should pay attention to the fever as it had become a huge public health issue.
Practicing physicians said that when any patient with fever went to them they prescribed Covid, dengue, typhoid and Chikungunya tests because all the viruses are now prevailing at a time.
Diagnosing such number of suspected infections costs Tk 6,000 on average for each person in private hospitals and Tk 1,200 in public hospitals, said hospital officials.
鈥業n most cases, we find that the patient is not positive to any of these infections. Then we come to conclude that the patient is suffering from viral fever,鈥� said Nur Mohammad, medicine specialist at Labaid Hospital.
He said that most of the patients went to physicians with similar symptoms, including joint pain, headache, cold and cough, adding that in some 80 per cent cases he found no Covid, dengue, chikunguniya positive report.
Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital associate professor at the medicine department HM Nazmul Ahsan said that he was getting relatively more Chikungunya patients among the identified cases while most of the patients with unidentified diseases carried viral fever.
Of the total patients, he has been visiting of late, 80 per cent have come to him with fever, he said. Chikungunya patients, he observed, visit doctors earlier than those who are diagnosed with other fevers.
According to public health experts, dengue and Chikungunya -- among the prevalent fevers -- are carried by vectors, typhoid by water while others are viral.
Bangladesh Medical University public health and informatics associate professor Md Khalequzzaman said that there might be a link between climate change and the spread of fever.
Viruses, he said, are always in the nature. During the monsoon season, viruses get stronger in the favourable environment, charactirised with humidity, and thus infect people.
鈥楶roper hygiene practices can protect people from viral infections,鈥� he said.
According to doctors and public health experts, pregnant women, children, and old-age people are relatively more vulnerable to viral diseases.
Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute said that 90 per cent of all types of patients who were taking treatment were with unknown viral diseases.
Shishu hospital officials said that between July 22 and July 30 they provided out-patient services to 2,110 children. Of them, the highest -- 1,917 children -- were with fever. Among others, 131 patients received treatment, who had already caught pneumonia.
However, doctors and public health experts said that as mortality rate due to the unknown fever was not significant the authority as well as the people did not take it seriously.
Public health experts asked the authorities concerned about the need for controlling mosquito, planned urbanization, and ensuring hygienic living everywhere to reduce risks of the viral fever.
Directorate General of Health Services line director for the communicable disease Halimur Rashid said that they had no study on the virus.
鈥楢s we don鈥檛 have any study conducted in this regard, we still don鈥檛 know anything about the virus,鈥� he said, adding that they also did not have any plan to carry out such a study now.
He urged people to wear mask and maintain health guidelines to avoid the viral fever.
Virologist professor Nazrul Islam said that the government should facilitate research on the issue so that the nature and the character of the virus could be known first.
Mazeda Khatun, a 52-year-old school teacher in Tangail and a victim of the unknown viral infection said that all five members of her family suffered from fever in a 15-day span but four of them did not visit any doctor.
When her 4-year-old granddaughter had fever on mid-July they visited a doctor who told them that it was viral fever.
A Dhaka Medical College Hospital technician said that they were collecting over 1,500 blood samples daily, mostly to test for fever.
Visiting the hospital on Thursday, it was found that many patients were taking treatment on the floor of the hospital since patient rush had increased due to the fever.
According to the DGHS, this year 84 people died of dengue and 21,327 others were hospitalized as of Saturday.
Meanwhile, at least 30 people have died of Covid-19 and 722 people tested positive for the infection since January.
