Bangladesh logs year's highest 2,731 single-day dengue cases

At least 2,731 dengue patients were hospitalised in the past 24 hours till Sunday morning across the country, which was the highest single day reported cases this year.

This pushes the caseload from the mosquito-borne disease this year to 49,138.

Also, eight more deaths were reported from dengue during the period, raising the death toll to 247 this year.

Of the new patients, 1,184 were admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and 1,547 outside Dhaka City, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With just a day left to end July, the month has already witnessed the most 41,160 dengue cases this year. 

Till Sunday morning, 9,418 dengue patients were under hospital care around the country, and 5,147 of them were in Dhaka.

The dengue outbreak has been worse in 2023 than in previous years.

Last year, hospitals up and down the country reported 62,382 patients taking medical care, and the death toll stood at 281, the highest since the record-keeping began for dengue hospitalisations in the 1960s.

Bangladesh witnessed over 1,00,000 dengue hospitalisation in 2019, which stands as the record number of cases in a single year. The official death toll that year was recorded as 179.

Meanwhile, at a special meeting yesterday, Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam said the task force committee formed under the leadership of the councillors will carry out extensive campaigns in addition to mosquito eradication activities in their respective areas. 

The councillors will write to owners of under-construction buildings, asking them to make sure that water does not accumulate at their construction sites, he added.

Also, a list of buildings under construction will be published, he said. "A list of houses with dengue patients should be made and larviciding should be increased in those neighbourhoods."