The death toll from dengue infection in the country in 2023 crossed 1,000, with 17 more deaths from the viral disease and 2,882 more hospitalisations in the past 24 hours until Sunday morning.

The new figures took the number of dengue deaths to 1,006 and hospitalisations with the disease to 206,288 across the country in the past nine months and one day of the year, according to the Directorate General of Health Services. Dengue death this year crossed total death numbers in the past 23 years since 2000. Over two decades Bangladesh recorded a total of 243,744 dengue hospitalisations and 814 deaths.

Of them, in the first dengue outbreak in 2000, Bangladesh reported hospitalisation of 5,551 patients and 93 deaths, according to the DGHS data.Dengue hospitalisations had been reported at 28,429 and 62,382, respectively, in 2021 and 2022, when the outbreak in the country caused 105 and 281 deaths respectively.

Experts in virology and epidemiology said that the real number of dengue deaths and hospitalisations had been much higher than the reported cases.Dengue cases would increase more as the situation would prolong for more months.

They said that both deaths and hospitalisations  broke all previous records due to the failure on the part of the authorities concerned to control Aedes, the vector carrying dengue virus, and to provide proper healthcare to the people.

Since the number of dengue patients is on the rise, the hospitals are flooded with patients that have led to bed shortage, saline crisis and mismanagement in healthcare.Former Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University vice-chancellor and virology professor Nazrul Islam said that the health authority asked people not to get admitted to hospitals since it was an acute problem to reduce patients’ pressure in the hospitals.

‘Most of the patients died in hospitals within days of admission,’ he said. DGHS reported that in the 39th epidemiological week between September 24 and 30, a total of 96 patients died of dengue.

Of them, highest 56 per cent died on the first day of their admission in the hospitals, while 79 deaths occurred within three days of hospitalisation.Entomologists also criticised the authorities concerned for their failure to control mosquito population. They were dubious about the efficacy and use of insecticide being used to kill mosquitoes and larvae.

Local government minister Md Tazul Islam, however, blamed the rain and a favourable environment for the spread of dengue as they contributed to Aedes breeding.

He also stressed the need for public awareness and involvement of the people in dengue control efforts. On August 7, the Dhaka North City Corporation started using a larvicide, Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis, but due to import scam they suspended its use.

DGHS data showed that though dengue hospitalisation and deaths were higher in the capital in the beginning compared to dengue hospitalisation and deaths outside the capital, now it got reversed over the time.

So far, out of 1,006 dengue deaths a total of 648 died in the capital and the rest 358 outside the capital. Out of total 206,288 dengue hospitalisations, 83,851 were reported in the capital and 122,437 outside the capital.

Former principal scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research Touhid Uddin Ahmed said that if the authority could have controlled Aedes mosquitoes in the capital, dengue would not have spread outside the capital.

‘There is no mosquito control mechanism in the rural Bangladesh. So, without natural control there is hardly any pragmatic scope for human interference,’ he added.Epidemiologist and a former director of the IEDCR AM Zakir Hussain suspected that dengue situation would prolong at least two more months as monsoon rain was still on.

Dengue deaths and hospitalisation has been rising gradually since the beginning of this year. The DGHS recorded that a total of 566 dengue patients were hospitalised in January, 166 in February, 111 in March, 143 in April, 1,036 in May, 5,956 in June, 43,854 in July, 71,976 in August and 79,698 in September.At least six people died of dengue in January, three in February, two in April, two in May, 34 in June, 204 in July, 342 in August and 396 in September.

DGHS reported that except Dhaka, at least 74 people died of dengue in Chattogram district, 72 in Barishal, 59 in Faridpur, 46 in Khulna, 20 in Rajshahi and the lowest one person died in Sylhet.