Specialist doctors have advised that anyone running a fever for one to two days should go to the nearest hospital and get tested for dengue. They also advised that patients who test positive should not stay at home but seek a doctor’s care.
Specialists say dengue case numbers are rising in the capital and across the country, with a significant share of those infected being children. School-going children in particular are being affected more this year. So a dengue test should be done without delay when a fever appears, and a doctor consulted as needed. The health directorate has also asked people to get tested at the nearest hospital as soon as a fever develops.
Health officials said the government has made the NS1 dengue test completely free at all public hospitals until 31 December, and cut the CBC test from 300 taka to just 50 taka.
According to the health directorate, 18,673 people had been hospitalised with dengue and 59 had died as of 8 August this year. Of those infected, 61.5 percent were male and 38.5 percent female. Those aged up to 30 numbered 10,827, with 25 deaths in that age group. Of all the deaths, 22 were male and 37 female. So far this year, 26 people have died in the Dhaka division alone.
A comparison of 2025 and 2026 figures shows 18,673 people infected as of 8 August this year, against 23,410 in the same period of 2025. Deaths this year stand at 59, compared with 95 over the same period in 2025 — both infections and deaths lower this year.
Dr Hasan Hafizur Rahman, associate professor in the medicine department of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said the main way to prevent dengue is to destroy the Aedes mosquito, which first requires greater public awareness. Everyone should keep their home premises clean so that water does not collect in flower pots, drums, buckets, and beneath air conditioners and refrigerators. Active participation by all citizens is essential to destroying the Aedes mosquito, he said.
He said body temperature in dengue fever can rise to between 102 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit; at that stage the fever should be brought down by applying water to the head and sponging the body. If the fever intensifies, a dengue test should be done quickly.
Dr Nurul Islam, director (hospitals and clinics) at the health directorate, said a dengue test should be done quickly even for a one- to two-day fever. Saying that field-level public-awareness work had also been ordered, he said all hospitals in the country had been directed to stay prepared for a feared rise in dengue patients during the monsoon. Necessary medicines and equipment are stocked, and extra beds and separate dengue wards will be opened if the situation worsens.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report