DGHS records 1,889 dengue cases, 20 deaths in a day

The number of dengue patients hospitalised in Bangladesh so far has increased to 252,990, with 1,889 new cases reported in the latest daily count.

The death toll stood at 1,246 as 20 more patients died from the mosquito-borne disease in the 24 hours to Saturday morning amid the worst outbreak on record, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Dhaka saw 412 new cases and 10 deaths in this period.

The hospitals across Bangladesh were treating 8,144 patients for dengue fever in the morning, and 2,341 of them were in the capital.

After a record 79,598 dengue cases and 396 deaths from the disease in September, as many as 49,584 cases and 257 deaths have been recorded so far in October.

Experts have blamed a prolonged monsoon and rising temperature, along with a lack of effective measures to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the known carrier of the virus, for the outbreak.