Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said the government will designate separate hospitals to treat dengue patients as the number of cases has increased amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The hospitals for dengue patients will include Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Lalkuthi Hospital, Railway Hospital, and Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master General Hospital in Tongi, reports bdnews24.com.
The Directorate General of Health Services will release the details later, Maleque said while visiting an under-construction field hospital at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital on Sunday.
More than 1,500 dengue cases and three deaths have been detected in Bangladesh this year, and 422 of them received treatment at hospitals, mostly in Dhaka, on Sunday.
The minister said the hospitals have been hit by a surge in dengue cases when they are under pressure to treat patients suffering from the coronavirus and other diseases, collect and test samples from suspected patients, and vaccinate citizens against COVID-19.
“So we’ve selected some hospitals where we will arrange the treatment of the dengue patients. Because they cannot be treated at COVID hospitals.”
In the 24 hours to 8:00am on Sunday, the DGHS recorded 105 hospitalisations with dengue, the highest single-day count this year. Only one of them is outside Dhaka.
Out of the 1,574 dengue patients who have been hospitalised this year, 1,202 cases have been detected in July.
After the emergence of the disease in 2000, Bangladesh recorded the highest number of dengue cases during an outbreak in 2019.
According to government data, more than 100,000 people were infected and nearly 175 of them died in the year.
Experts believe the real figure was much higher because many people did not undergo tests.
In 2020, a total of 1,405 dengue patients were hospitalised, and 12 of them died.