Dengue fatalities rise to 100 with two more death

Dengue claimed two more lives in Bangladesh while 119 new patients were hospitalised in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, health authorities said.

With the fresh deaths, the number of fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease this year rose to 100, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Ninety-two people died in Dhaka division alone, two each in Chattogram, Mymensingh, and Khulna divisions and one each in Rajshahi and Barishal divisions, reports UNB.

Twenty-eight new patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Dhaka while the remaining 91 cases have been reported from outside the division.

Some 256 patients diagnosed with dengue are receiving treatment in the country as of Tuesday.

Of them, 180 patients are receiving treatment at different hospitals in the capital while the remaining 76 were listed outside Dhaka.

Since January, some 27,779 patients have been admitted to different hospitals with dengue in the country. So far, 27,423 dengue patients have left hospitals after recovery, said DGHS.

Experts attribute the unusually high dengue cases during the dry season, mainly in Dhaka, to the prolonged rainy season, sporadic rainfall, and high humidity and temperature, Aedes mosquitoes' reproductive and behavioural changes caused by climate change and lack of people’s awareness and poor controlling measures by the two city corporations of the capital.

They also said the climate conditions of Bangladesh are becoming more favourable for the Aedes mosquitos to prevail in all seasons with high or low intensity mainly for the increase in temperature and breeding sources.