On the first day of the Eid-Ul-Azha holiday on Sunday (Aug 11), two new dengue wards were inaugurated at Dhaka’s Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College (ShSMC) to serve the increasing number of dengue patients.

As dengue menace is still continuing, over four hundred patients were being treated at different cabins and wards at ShSMC in the morning of the Eid day.

Dr Hafez Mohammad Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor (Medicine) at the hospital, along with his assistant and intern doctors, was seen serving patients at the hospital, on Monday (Aug 12) morning.

In general, doctors provide 24 hours service at every hospital, but during the government holidays, most of them perform on-call duty to tackle emergency situation. But this year,  the situation is very different.

While talking to this correspondent, Shefali Hasan Khan, the mother of a patient admitted at ShSMC, said: "Its Eid... it’s a misfortune that my daughter has been suffering from dengue fever. Eid is a time of celebration with family, but the day has been ruined. Now we have to stay at the hospital."

As so many patients are suffering from the dengue fever, the hospitals staffs have to work hard, said Shahana Begum, senior staff nurse of the hospital.

"This is our first Eid duty. Otherwise we don’t have any duty during Eid. However, It's a good experience and we don’t feel bad working for mankind, whereas everyone is celebrating.

All professors, emergency service doctors, nurses and supporting stuffs of each of the government hospitals are working for saving people's lives as the government has cancelled all the leave of the hospital staffs to tackle the dengue situation across the country.

Since the beginning of the dengue menace, all doctors, both the seniors and juniors, have been working nonstop to serve the patients. Some of them directly came to the hospital, just after offering their eid prayers.

Dr HM Nazmul Ahsan, associate professor of the hospital said: "The country is going through a critical situation at this moment. There are hundreds of dengue patients at every hospital. We have dedicated ourselves to saving them, and if we can bring smiles to their faces, that will be our joy."

No difference was seen at every public and private hospitals across the country as doctors have been providing supreme service. Thanks to them.

While talking to this correspondent, a duty doctor said some 30 patients were discharged from the hospital until noon.

However, he said the number of new patients is increasing daily. "So, we assume that the number may increase further in the night," he added.

Moreover, to tackle the critical patients, two more blocks have been arranged at the ShSMC where doctors will monitor each of the patients in every three hours.