New Delhi: At least 176 people have died in Bangladesh as the country is grappling with a deadly dengue outbreak, with hospitals packed with patients, caused by heavy monsoon rains in the country, reported Al Jazeera.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), at least 176 people, including 31 children aged below 14, had died of the mosquito-borne fever until Sunday night.
As per the data, Wednesday was the deadliest day when 19 people died of the disease which has seen nearly 33,000 hospitalisations this year, reported Al Jazeera.
According to the news outlet, health experts in the South Asian nation say the disease has already reached an “epidemic” proportion, even though the government has not officially declared one.
“I think the outbreak of dengue this year has the same impact on people as it did in 2019, if not more,” ANM Nuruzzaman, physician and public health expert told Al Jazeera.
Health experts feared August and September will be more severe as these two months are more suitable for breeding Aedes mosquitoes, reported ANI.
A DGHS official told ANI, "The number of dengue patients had been increasing alarmingly since January this year giving a signal of dengue pandemic during the rainy season as 566 dengue cases were reported in the first month of the year, which is almost five times higher than that of the same period of past three years."
When asked if the Bangladesh government should declare a public health emergency given the dengue situation in the country, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said, “…But such a situation has not appeared yet that we are unable to give beds to patients in hospitals and give them medicines. The number of dengue patients is still under our control.”
Dengue is common in South Asia, especially during the monsoon season which runs from June to September, and there is no specific treatment, but with early detection and access to proper medical care fewer than 1% of sufferers die from the disease, according to news agency Reuters.
The dengue virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which has grown rapidly along with urbanization and globalization because it thrives in tropical mega-cities and is easily spread in goods containing small puddles of water.