Bangladesh sees rising dengue deaths amid 'changing behavior' of disease

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh continues to report deaths due to dengue infections for the last one month amid a changing behavior of the deadly disease.

This September saw 80 deaths caused by dengue, half of the total 166 deaths this year since January. Of the total over 32,000 cases of hospitalization, over 18,000 were reported in September alone.

Experts forecast a worsening situation in October, adding that deaths are mostly occurring as patients are coming to hospitals at the last stage.

“On Monday, we registered 5 deaths in hospitals caused by dengue. Of them, four died the day they were admitted and one died two days after being admitted (to hospital),” Dr. Abu Hussain Md. Moinul Ahsan, director at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told Anadolu.

“Despite all the preparation and logistics at hospitals, we cannot save lives if patients are taken to hospital late,” the official said.

Raja, a two-and-half-year-old boy from the Uttar Badda neighborhood in Dhaka, survived a dengue attack.

“Our boy didn’t face extreme condition as we took him to a nearby private hospital immediately after we noticed a rise in his body temperature,” his mother Mona Barua told Anadolu, criticizing the official anti-dengue campaign as a “name-only tradition.”

Medicine specialist Dr. ABM Abdullah told Anadolu that fatalities rise when patients come late to the hospital, adding that casualties were seen as high among patients who were infected with dengue for the second or third time.

An individual can be infected four times as there are four separate variants of the dengue virus, he added.

He said the capital Dhaka-based healthcare system encourage patients across the country to rush to major hospitals in the city which also contribute to rising dengue related deaths.

“When a patient with a serious health condition from another city 200-300 kilometers away is taken to Dhaka, it certainly reduces the chance of the patient’s survival. Furthermore, the average ambulances are not equipped with required medical care," Dr. Abdullah said.

Therefore, he suggested initial treatment of patients at districts or town hospitals.

- Changing behavior of dengue

“We see a change in the symptoms. Patients often couldn’t determine that they are already infected and their condition suddenly deteriorates,” Dr. Abdullah explained.

Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist and professor at Jahangirnagar University who has been researching the dengue mosquito and its behavior for years now, told Anadolu that he discovered during his research that dengue mosquitoes can lay eggs in unclean stagnant water and bite both during the day and night.

“We cannot control the Aedes mosquito with a common approach as its breeding, larvae season and living environment are different from other mosquito species,” he explained.

He observed that the city authorities’ anti-dengue campaigns are inappropriate, suggesting redesigning the mosquito control as it doesn’t kill dengue at home.

The DGHS official, however, claimed that the local government is also working to destroy breeding grounds and control dengue mosquitoes in consultation with entomologists.

The viral dengue infection is transmitted to humans through infected mosquitoes. There is no treatment for the disease yet. In 2023, Bangladesh reported a record 1,705 deaths due to dengue and a total of 321,179 dengue cases, according to the DGHS data.​​​​​​​