The number of dengue cases is on the rise in all districts outside Dhaka with an estimated 4,905 dengue cases reported outside the capital till Saturday (Aug 3).
The number of reported cases outside Dhaka stood at 4,190 on Friday (Aug 2) and at 3,464 on Thursday (Aug 1), said sources at the Health Emergency and Operations Centre and Control Room of the Health Directorate.
The sources said that a reported 2,381 patients had been admitted with the fever while 2,524 others had been discharged after treatment outside the capital.
According to the sources, as many as 6,858 patients were currently admitted with the fever at hospitals across the country and 16,043 of them had gone home after treatment.
A total of 432 affected patients were being treated for the fever at different hospitals in 11 districts of Chattogram division, including Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
The resident medical officer at Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital Dr Noyonmoy Tripura said, “All of the patients have come from Dhaka and are being treated at a separate ward allocated for dengue affected patients as they were rising in number.”
The number of patients in 10 districts of Khulna division rose to 580 by Aug 3.
Khulna Health Directorate (disease control) said on Saturday (Aug 3) afternoon that between Jul 1 and Aug 3, 142 dengue cases were reported in Khulna, 148 in Jashore, 18 in Bagerhat, 34 in Satkhira, 50 in Jhenaidah, 28 in Magura, 19 in Narail, 112 in Kushtia, 21 in Chuadanga and 8 in Meherpur.
In Mymensingh division, 277 patients were being treated for the fever in its five districts while 325 affected patients were receiving treatment in eight districts of Rajshahi division.
A total of 213 dengue affected patients were hospitalized in Rangpur division, 197 patients were hospitalized in Barishal division and 100 patients were hospitalized with the fever in Sylhet division.
General Secretary of the Doctors’ for Health and Environment and paediatrician Professor Kazi Rakibul Islam said, “Dengue cases have already been reported in all 64 districts of the country.”
He said that Millions of people who have already been infected would carry the disease and travel outside Dhaka during the upcoming Eid, infecting thousands of others with the fever.
President of Shastho Odhikar Andolon Dr Rasid-e-Mahbub, also a former president of Bangladesh Medical Association, said that the dengue fever had spread across the country due to negligence.
He told Bangla Tribune that the disease had spread across the country and the Health Directorate would now have to train all doctors at the district and upazila levels to treat the disease besides raising awareness about it.
Asked about the reason behind the recent rise in dengue cases outside the capital, Senior Scientific Officer at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control And Research (IEDCR) Dr ASM Alamgir said that one major reason behind the spread of the disease was that many infected students, who lived in messes in Dhaka, had gone home carrying the germ.
He said that another probable reason behind the rise of dengue cases in rural areas was that the Aedes Albopictus mosquito, which bred in rural areas, would become a carrier of the germ if it bit an already infected person and infect further people.
Director of Disease Control Division of the Health Directorate Dr Sanya Tahmina said that the disease was likely to spread outside Dhaka and people who would be leaving Dhaka during Eid would act as ‘Reservoirs’.
She added that if these infected patients travelled to places where Aedes mosquito bred, the disease would spread through the insects.
