DHAKA, Bangladesh – The loss of life toll from Bangladesh’s worst dengue outbreak has surpassed 1,000 this yr, official information confirmed, as hospitals wrestle to make room for sufferers because the illness spreads quickly within the densely populated nation.
No less than 1,017 individuals have died to this point in 2023 and almost 209,000 individuals have been contaminated, making this yr the deadliest for the reason that first recorded pandemic in 2000, the information confirmed.
The present loss of life toll is sort of 4 instances the full variety of deaths in all of final yr, when Bangladesh recorded 281 dengue-related deaths.
Well being officers stated hospitals are struggling to seek out area for a lot of sufferers affected by excessive fever, joint ache and vomiting, whereas there’s a scarcity of intravenous fluids.
“I don’t understand how my son received contaminated… All of a sudden he developed a fever. I rushed him right here after which the medical doctors found he had dengue,” Sanwar Hussain informed Reuters as he monitored his son at Mugda Normal Hospital within the capital, Dhaka.
The hospital director, who makes use of the one identify Niyatosman, stated that though the variety of sufferers from Dhaka has decreased in current days, the variety of individuals being admitted from rural areas of the nation has risen, describing this as a “worrying” signal.