Some of the country’s top epidemiologists, entomologists and public health experts were not present at Sunday’s meeting. He was not invited. Meanwhile, the main task of mosquito control has been given to the Ministry of Local Government. While representatives of the Dhaka North and South City Corporations were present at the meeting, there was no official or representative from the Ministry of Local Government.
Apart from the representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministries of Education, Public Works and Information, as well as representatives of the ICT Division and professional organizations participated in the meeting. The main discussion was moderated by Health Minister Zahid Malik.
The participants in the meeting made several recommendations. He recommended that dengue should be worked on throughout the year, the main emphasis should be on prevention, different ministries should be involved in dealing with dengue, a national committee for dengue should be formed under the chairmanship of the health ministry, regular tests should be done To see whether the insecticides being used to eliminate mosquitoes are effective or not, the use of insecticides should be scientific and proper training should be provided to the workers spraying insecticides. At the beginning of the meeting, the Disease Control Branch made a presentation on the current dengue situation in the country.
Participating in the discussion, Professor Syed Abdul Hamid, Department of Health Economics, University of Dhaka said that there was no regular fund allocation for the health department to deal with any sudden outbreak like dengue. Regular allocation is required otherwise during emergencies various institutions in the health sector have to wait for funds.
Health Secretary (Health Services) Anwar Hussain Hauldar said that according to his records, so far 27 children in the age group of 6 to 10 years have died of dengue across the country. It consisted of 15 boys and 12 girls.