Health experts are of the opinion that the dengue situation is under control, so there is no need to be tensed. They said this seeing the people still rushing to hospitals for dengue test even though they are suffering from seasonal viral fever. This is resulting in tremendous pressure on hospitals and health workers. Some hospitals are running short of stock of dengue testing kits. Health experts opine that the situation is nowhere near epidemic and such panic is not helping them fight the infection.
According to the health directorate dengue infection in the country in July crossed all time previous records with 15,614 cases of infections while the total number of infections until Thursday since beginning of this year stood at 19,513. Professor Abul Kalam Azad, Director General of Health Services told Bangladesh Post, “I strongly believe that the sudden rise in the number of dengue infections is due to increased awareness which is why people are seeking hospitalization and hence the infection is being reported.”
Prof Azad also explained that during the previous years people also were infected but this year it is due to ‘extensive media coverage which has created panic and so such a huge rush. “This is an 18 year high record as documents show,” Dr Ayesha Akther Of Health Emergency Operation Centre of the health directorate told Bangladesh Post on Thursday.
She mentioned that that the reason could be due to various patterns of infections in types of virus. “There are four different types of strands of dengue virus which cause the infection. May be it is due to secondary infection which is causing the fatalities and sending people to rush for medical treatment.” While the situation is getting quite alarming there are reports of chikungunya and typhoid infections from various parts of the city.
Entomologists or experts studying insects said that chikungunya infection is common in such tropical environment and we have also found many cases the previous years. A leading expert who sought anonymity told Bangladesh Post, “Information on chikungunya infection seem to be playing a low profile but it is also spreading fast and may reach quite a high proportion if not equal to what dengue infection appears.”
Dr Zahid Hossain, a private practitioner in the capital said that typhoid, spread by bacteria, is also seasonal and it is also reported in many private and public hospitals in the city “I have diagnosed many patients in the last four weeks. It is mostly spread through contaminated water by specific bacteria,” said Dr Hossain.
Dr Meejady Sabrina Tahmina told Bangladesh Post, “We are aware of typhoid which is of course seasonal but I have no data on chikungunya infection. I have no official record on chikungunya infection so far.” Asked for statistics on the above mentioned diseases to the health directorate control room, no data was available from them.
Meanwhile, many private hospitals in the city have reported diagnosing typhoid and chikungunya. At a diagnostic centre in Gulshan and Baridhara at least 17 cases of chikungunya and five cases of typhoid were reported while two other diagnostic centres in Mohammadpur and Shaymoli reported confirming at least nine cases of chikungunya and four cases of typhoid in the city in last two weeks.
Experts said that it is quite usual to find chikungunya and typhoid due to the favoring conditions in this seasonal. The ongoing drive by the two City Corporations and DGHS in creating awareness regarding how to prevent spreading of dengue.
