Dengue, an infectious tropical viral fever, is rising alarmingly in the capital with the highest peak of 691 cases reported up to September 26 this year since 2007, according to official data.
A total of 384 dengue patients have been admitted to the city’s Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital alone during this season and of them, one patient has died, hospital officials told the news agency.
They informed that some 12 dengue patients are still taking treatment at the Holy Family Hospital and four new patents with dengue fever got admitted within 24 hours on Monday. ‘More dengue patients got admitted to this hospital this year compared to the previous two years,’ the hospital officials said.
Fazlul Kader Khan, a junior consultant (child) at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, has been suffering from dengue fever for last five days.
‘I had been suffering steadily from acute fever for 2-3 days and later it was confirmed that I have been affected by dengue virus. As treatment, I’m still taking paracetamol tablet and regularly washing my head with water,’ he said on Tuesday.
Khan, who has been living in the city’s Taltola-Agargoan area, mentioned that there were more dengue patients around his residence.
Updating the dengue cases from 2007-2011, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research showed that the peak of 183 dengue cases was recorded in August 2007 while the peak of 473 cases in July 2008, 188 cases in September 2009 and 183 cases in August 2010.
The expert physicians emphasise on creating mass awareness of the dengue fever and motivating the city dwellers to take part in the campaign to destroy the breeding places of Aedes mosquito around their homesteads.
Describing Dengue as an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus, Pravat Chandra Barua, professor of Community Medicine at the Chittagong Medical College, said that dengue symptoms included fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash similar to measles.
He said in a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where a dangerously low blood pressure occurs.
Barua said subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. As there is no vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites. ‘Complete rest is the best treatment for a Dengue patient.’
He also said that sources of the dengue breeding should be immediately reduced as the first step to control the virus. Cases of dengue fever or any other communicable diseases should be notified to the local authorities — the chief health official in the City Corporation and civil surgeons outside the capital, Barua said.