Bangladesh has recorded over one lakh dengue cases for the third time since 2000, when registering of dengue patients began in the country, while deaths and hospitalisation from the mosquito-borne disease continue.
At least 141 more people were hospitalised with dengue across the country and three more people died of the viral disease over the last 24 hours till 8:00am on Saturday.
Including the latest, the number of hospitalised patients with the disease reached 1,00,029 this year with the death toll reaching 561, according to a Directorate General of Health Services press release.
A dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000 when 93 patients died and 5,551 patients were hospitalised, according to DGHS data.
In 2023 alone, the disease killed a record high 1,705 people and sent 3,21,179 people to hospitals, while between 2000 and 2022 total 853 deaths and 2,44,246 hospital admissions were recorded, health directorate data show.
The second highest deaths from the disease recorded at 276 was registered in 2019 with over 1,01,354 hospital admissions. In 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, seven people died of dengue with 1,405 hospital admissions.
This year, the country is experiencing the longest spell of the vector-borne disease鈥檚 outbreak. The period of May鈥揙ctober has so far been recorded as the peak time for dengue in Bangladesh, but this year in December also high rates of death and hospitalisation are observed.
Of the total hospitalised patients this year, 37,870 have been recorded in the capital and the rest 62,159 have been registered in different districts. Of the patients, 63,136 (63 per cent) are men, and the rest 36,892 (37 per cent) are women.聽
Of the total 561 recorded deaths this year, 290 were women, and 271 were men.
The health directorate reported that this year 339 people died of dengue in hospitals in the capital, while 222 people died in different hospitals across the country.
Of the deaths, 14 died in January, three in February, five in March, two in April, two in May, eight in June, 12 in July, 27 in August, 80 in September, 134 in October, 173 in November, and 71 in first 21 days of December.
Of the hospitalisation this year, 1,055 were reported in January, 339 in February, 311 in March, 504 in April, 644 in May, 798 in June, 2,669 in July, 6,521 in August, 18,097 in September, 30,879 in October, 58,361 in November, and 8,560 in the first 21 days of December.
National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine entomology department head Professor Md Golam Sharower said that though winter had set in but dengue situation had yet to improve as expected.
鈥楳osquito population density is still alarming,鈥� he said, stressing the importance of research into the vector and virus.
He also highlighted the importance of testing the capacity of the insecticide used for larvae control.
According to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research鈥檚 latest virus surveillance report, of the four dengue virus serotypes three鈥擠ENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-3 are active in the country this year.
The IEDCR director Professor Tahmina Shirin, referring to a recent surveillance report completed in October said that this year DENV-2 was the dominating serotype which was found in the 70 per cent patients. The serotype DENV-3 was found in 20 per cent and DENV-4 was found in the rest of the patients.
Entomologists observed that dengue virus might have mutated but there was no research on it.
