Staff Reporter:
The country is watching a steady rise in dengue cases and the number of patients are hospitalized with the mosquito-borne disease reached 100 on Tuesday.
Thirty-one more people were hospitalized with dengue in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
Of the new patients, twenty-six were admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the rest outside it, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Hundred dengue patients, including 75 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
So far, the DGHS has recorded 1,292 dengue cases, 1,180 recoveries, and twelve deaths this year.
The country logged 281 dengue deaths in 2022 – the highest on record after 179 deaths recorded in 2019. Also, it recorded 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries last year.
Experts said dengue is gradually becoming an annual affair in Bangladesh as an endemic due to the ad-verse impacts of climate change.
They also said Bangladesh’s climate conditions are becoming more suitable for dengue and other vector-borne diseases like malaria and chikungunya due to excessive and erratic rainfall, waterlogging, flood-ing, and rise in temperature and abnormal shifts in the country’s traditional seasons.
A World Bank (WB) study report released in 2021 finds a wider link between the shifting climatic con-ditions and the increase in dengue and some other diseases in Bangladesh.
It says with falling humidity levels, rising temperatures, and increasing rainfall caused by climate change, the risk of dengue spread can be higher in the country, mainly in Dhaka and Chattogram cities, in the future.
It also said summers are becoming hotter and longer while winters are warmer, and the monsoon seasons are being extended from February to October.
