Helemul Alam

Major terminals in the capital remain ripe for Aedes mosquito breeding as hundreds of thousands of people are arriving in the city after Eid holidays.

The number of dengue patients in the capital has begun to show an upward trend in the past two days, following a fall during the Eid vacation. According to the Director General of Health Services, 1,929 patients were infected in the last 24 hours across the country till 8:00am

At least 11 people died of dengue fever over the last four days in Dhaka, Cumilla, Pabna, Laxmipur, Mymensingh, Lalmonirhat, Faridpur and Khulna -- making the unofficial death toll 90.

Jannatul Mawa, 5, spent part of her Eid day in the children’s park of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, which has around 80 dengue patients, before returning to her hospital bed.

Emon Hossain, a seventh grader, will be missing out on Eid celebrations with his family in his grandfather’s Shariyatpur house. This year, his festivities will be restricted to the hospital where he has been admitted since being diagnosed with dengue on Wednesday.

Sharna Akhtar, 18, who had swallowed poison, was in a critical stage when she was brought to the Mugda General Hospital last week.

Heavy rains in Dhaka since Wednesday have increased the chances of Aedes mosquitoes breeding in cattle markets.

Dengue infections and Aedes mosquito prevalence are higher in areas with too many multistory buildings and shiny infrastructures adorned with decorative greeneries, although there are a few exceptions, analysis of two government surveys shows.

Health experts fear the exodus of thousands city dwellers during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha vacations could further spread the dengue outbreak in the city, as mosquitoes might use the empty homes, schools and offices as prime breeding grounds.

Most of the people who died of dengue this year suffered shock syndrome and were second-time infected, said the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

The Central Police Hospital in Rajarbagh, which sees an average of 200 patients a day, has been without the NS1 kits needed for dengue detection since July 30.

With dengue cases rising fast even outside Dhaka, experts now fear that a second variety of Aedes mosquito is responsible for the rapid spread of the viral disease.

Experts are worried that dengue outbreak would remain a serious threat at least until October and they are not ruling out November.

“Do you want to kill my son?” a worried mother yelled at staffers of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in the capital. Her son, Mohammad Ali, 13, from Mohammadpur Geneva Camp, has had a 104-degree fever for the past three days.

A new insecticide to kill mosquitos is expected to arrive in the country in a few days and, after necessary lab tests, it will be imported within the next couple of weeks, lawyers of the two Dhaka city corporations told the High Court yesterday.

When the country is grappling with a record number of dengue cases, different hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres face a short supply of a kit that is needed to detect the fever at the early stage.

After the dengue outbreak spread to almost every district in the country, health experts now fear the viral fever will spread further and faster during Eid vacation, when tens of thousands of people are expected to head home.

Doctors and nurses in hospitals around the city are being overworked and resources are stretching thin due to the ongoing record dengue outbreak.

Last Sunday, when Shahjadi Akter’s five-year-old daughter began running a fever, she rushed the child to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from her Hosni Dalan house. Doctors there diagnosed her with dengue, but could not admit her due to a lack of beds.

There are very little mosquito control activities in the newly formed 36 wards of the two Dhaka city corporations. The north and south city corporations of the city do not even have any funds allocated for combating mosquitos and managing garbage in the areas.