Govt preparing 1,500 beds at public hospitals in Dhaka for dengue patients

Health Minister Zahid Maleque says the government is preparing 1,500 beds for dengue patients at public hospitals in Dhaka amid a surge in cases of the mosquito-borne disease.

“The authorities are preparing a total of 5,000 more beds for dengue patients at public hospitals across the country. The new beds will be installed wherever possible at the hospitals,” the minister said on Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.

"New beds will not only be added to medical colleges but also to public hospitals alongside the existing ones."

The dengue outbreak this year began ahead of the monsoon season.

The fresh cases reported in the 24 hours to 8 am on Friday took the overall tally this year to 44,205. Of this number, 36,227 were hospitalised in July, the highest in the first seven months of this year since record-keeping began for dengue hospitalisations in the 1960s.

Another 907 dengue patients were hospitalised in Dhaka over the same period, while 596 hospitalisations were reported outside the capital.

Currently, 8,676 patients with dengue are hospitalised in Bangladesh. Of them, 4,870 are in Dhaka and 3,806 are outside the capital.

The death toll from the mosquito-borne disease currently stands at 229.