Reliable data to fight dengue vital

It is alarming that the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is allegedly underreporting the number of dengue patients being treated at major hospitals in the capital. A comparison by Prothom Alo found that the DGHS reported only 316 dengue patients admitted to four hospitals on September 21, while hospital authorities put the number at 817—a discrepancy of 501 patients. At Mugda Medical College Hospital, for instance, the DGHS reported 49 admissions for dengue against 223 recorded by hospital authorities. Such a wide gap raises serious questions about the reliability of the country’s dengue surveillance system at a time when the outbreak is intensifying.

The DGHS does not receive data from every health facility, with many private hospitals and clinics, particularly those outside Dhaka, excluded from its reporting system. Patients treated by doctors in private chambers are also not counted. Given these gaps, it is unacceptable that the DGHS is failing to accurately compile data from the few hospitals it does currently cover. According to the DGHS, 63,627 dengue patients have been hospitalised and 190 have died this year as of September 21. The numbers are already alarming, and underreporting will make it much harder to assess the actual scale of the outbreak and for health authorities to respond appropriately.

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Already, the government’s weak and largely reactive approach to dengue control has allowed the disease to become a year-round public health threat. Despite spending around Tk 825 crore on mosquito control in Dhaka over the past 11 years, the infection continues to spread, while most city corporations lack entomologists and the DGHS has failed to conduct its regular nationwide entomological surveys. Authorities also continue to rely on fragmented fogging, larviciding, and cleanliness drives instead of using a coordinated, science-based system to identify and eliminate breeding hotspots. Experts say that preventive measures must be backed by nationwide surveillance and a centralised mosquito-control strategy.

The authorities must urgently investigate why such large discrepancies exist and ensure that the data submitted by hospitals are properly verified and updated before publication. Hospitals should also be required to submit timely information. At the same time, the health directorate should work towards establishing a comprehensive disease surveillance system that includes private hospitals and clinics across the country and records dengue cases treated outside hospitals. Without proper data, the government will continue to struggle to bring the spread under control.