Health experts on Tuesday warned the dengue situation to deteriorate further in the coming August and September, asking authorities to launch a total war against mosquitoes of all types.
Talking to BSS several entomologists said the dengue by now emerged as an epidemic as it spread all over the country but observed that the concerned agencies, particularly city corporations could not take required steps to annihilate mosquitoes.
Doctors, meanwhile, said since no vaccine could be developed yet, they did not have much option to treat dengue patients other than suggesting fluids for them.
“City corporations must intensify their efforts at the quickest possible time to kill mosquitoes of all kinds, instead of searching for dengue carrying Aedes breeding grounds alone,” entomologist Professor Kabirul Bashar of Jahangirnagar University told BSS.
Unfortunately, he said, the municipal authorities could not do so yet despite being expected while several Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) officials echoed him.
“City corporations are tasked to annihilate mosquitoes but their performance is not satisfactory enough, a situation which is increasing our pressures with higher number of patients with not much treatment options,” a senior DGHS official said preferring anonymity.
According to DGHS statistics, 35,270 dengue cases were detected since January 1 while the dengue virus killed 185 people so far.
City corporation officials, however, said they were doing their best and attributed the rapid increase of dengue cases to lack of residents awareness for protection through use of mosquito nets or keep their households clean so mosquitoes could not breed.
South City Corporation’s Chief Health Officer DrFazleShamsulKabir claimed several tropical countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia were exposed to higher onslaughts of dengue.
Countries like Brazil, Argentina and Peru in South America were also witnessing an identical scenario, he said adding currently dengue was being considered as a global health burden.
The official referred to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support his claim that the world witnessed a sharp rise of the disease. “We have still time to control dengue because August is peak month for dengue outbreak and we need to grow mass awareness to tackle the disease,” Kabir said.
DGHS report suggests 11 areas of the capital were identified as dengue hotspots and most areas are under Dhaka South City Corporation.