DHAKA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- In the span of less than 8 months, the mosquito-borne Dengue fever has claimed 29 lives and infected some 35,000 persons across Bangladesh.
Based on the latest record of the the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), dengue prevalence has reached an alarming situation, with a total of 34,666 cases and 29 deaths from Jan. 1 to Aug. 8 this year, as compared to 10,148 cases and 26 deaths in the country last year.
The deaths this year include two in April, three in June, 15 in July and nine in August, the DGHS reported Thursday.
According to DGHS under the Ministry of Health, 18,205 more dengue cases were recorded so far this month which were more than the total number of patients in any past year since 2000.
A total of 2,362 fresh dengue cases including 1,159 merely in Dhaka were reported in the 24 hours till 8:00 a.m. local time Thursday, the DGHS data showed.
All the small and big Dhaka hospitals and clinics are now crammed with dengue patients.
Also TV reports showed patients suffering from dengue fever have been flooding hospitals and clinics elsewhere in the country.
Bangladesh health authorities have strengthened measures to check breeding of mosquitoes and conduct anti-larval operations.
Mirjadi Mehjabin, director of the government's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said earlier that dengue virus is unlikely to abate soon as the Aedes mosquito, which is the carrier of the virus, continues to breed till September.
She underscored the importance of detecting and destroying properly breeding grounds of the mosquito to rein in the fast outbreak of the disease.
The first case of mosquito-borne viral infection was reported in Bangladesh in 2000, and some 100 people died from the disease in 2000-2003.
