Bangladesh’s dengue situation is becoming steadily more dangerous. In recent years both infections and deaths from the Aedes-borne disease have risen sharply, and days without a dengue death have become rare. Sustainable measures against the disease are needed. To help prevent dengue and raise awareness, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (September 24) issued a warning setting out the early symptoms of dengue.
Anyone who experiences any of the early symptoms should see a doctor immediately, the message said. The early symptoms listed by the WHO are severe headache; pain behind the eyes; pain in the joints and muscles; nausea; vomiting; and a rash of small red spots on the skin. The WHO advised people to see a doctor promptly if any of these appear.
Dengue deaths this year have already passed 200, with 104 dengue patients dying in the first 22 days of September alone. According to the latest update, on Wednesday (September 23), the disease claimed six lives, and 1,868 people were admitted to hospital with dengue on the same day.
Data from the Directorate General of Health Services show dengue has become far more deadly over the past eight years. From 2000 to 2018, 296 people died of dengue; in the following seven years and nine months, 3,466 died. Official figures put infections over that period at 786,091, against 50,208 over the previous 18 years.
In other words, compared with the previous 18 years, dengue deaths in the last seven years and nine months have risen 11.71 times and infections 15.66 times.
Experts say weak control of Aedes breeding, under-recording of cases, late hospital admission and repeat infections in the same people are behind the situation. In their view, the Aedes mosquito has adapted well to Bangladesh’s changing environment, so dengue can no longer be treated as only a seasonal disease. The mosquito can breed in small amounts of standing water, even inside small discarded containers. Its spread is no longer confined to cities and is increasingly reaching rural areas. Population growth and repeat infections are making the situation more complicated: a person can be infected with dengue more than once, and communities where infections were once rare or unknown are now getting the disease.
To build sustainable dengue control, experts say long-term, coordinated and people-centred public health programmes are needed instead of short-term drives.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report