Excluding Dhaka, dengue patients highest in Barishal

An analysis of the dengue outbreak situation has revealed that excluding Dhaka district, the number of dengue patients is the highest in Barishal district, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

The IEDCR started monitoring Barishal district this year after the admission of dengue patients into hospitals went up significantly in the region.

The institution has already started epidemiological and entomological surveys to find the cause for the soaring number of dengue patients in Barishal.

So far this year, a total of 3,475 dengue patients have been admitted to different hospitals in Barguna, Jhalakathi, Pirojpur, Bhola, Patuakhali and Barishal in the division. Among them, 1,592 patients have been admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital alone.

The hospital is presently treating the highest number of dengue patients outside Dhaka.

“The number of dengue patients is the highest in Barishal district. An epidemiological and entomological survey is being conducted in Barishal to get the real picture of the dengue situation there, Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of IEDCR said on Sunday at a press conference at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

“In the survey, we will see if all the patients there have arrived from Dhaka or if the disease is being transmitted locally. If there is local transmission, the survey will reveal what type of mosquitoes are responsible,” she added.

Prof Flora further added that outside Dhaka, the IEDCR conducts regular surveys in Chattogram and Khulna.

“We will see why the number of dengue patients is higher in Barishal, and also evaluate the situation regarding Aedes mosquitoes there,” the IEDCR director told The Business Standard.

The number of fresh dengue patients presently getting admitted to hospital is higher in all other districts compared to Dhaka. 

According to the information provided by the Health Emergency Centre at the DGHS, a total of 1,299 fresh dengue patients got admitted to government and private hospitals and clinics across the country including Dhaka from 8am last Saturday to 8am Sunday.

In the last 24 hours, 607 patients were admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka, and 692 in hospitals outside Dhaka. The number of fresh dengue patients went up by 120 compared to that in the 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday. 

At present, 5,940 dengue patients are under treatment in government and private hospitals across the country. Of them 3,268 are in Dhaka and 2,672 in hospitals outside Dhaka. 

DGHS sources said that 63,514 dengue patients have been admitted to different hospitals across the country since January. Among them, 45,053 patients infected with dengue were admitted to hospital in the first 25 days of August.

This year IEDCR analysed the information of 80 deaths and confirmed that 40 of them died of dengue.  Information on 89 more deaths have been sent to the Death Review Committee of IEDCR for analysis. 

The previous highest number of death from dengue was 93 across the country in 2000.

3 die of dengue on Sunday

Three people died of dengue in Dhaka, Pabna and Kishoreganj on Sunday. 

Mahfuza,10, died of dengue in Kishoreganj.  The child died at 9am while under treatment at the Kishoreganj 250-bed General Hospital.

A school teacher named Jibon Nahar Ratna, 45, from Santhia upazila in Pabna died at a hospital in Dhaka while she was under treatment there. She was a teacher of No 2 Model Government Primary School in Santhia municipality.

Fazlur Rahman, 55 died of dengue at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) at 1am. He was being treated at DMCH ward 603 for the past three days. He came from the Dakkhin Banasree area in the capital.  

He was an adviser of a cooperative bank in the Kakrail area of Dhaka.