The Dhaka North City Corporation is all set to launch a monthlong anti-mosquito drive in all its wards from Tuesday to prevent the upward trend of the vector-borne disease.
The city corporation will work around-the-clock throughout November to destroy the breeding grounds of Aedes, the carrier of the dengue virus, and Culex mosquitoes.
Councillors, regional executive officers, and health directorate officials will be on the field in each ward during the drive.
The city corporation decided to launch the special drive amid complaints from different quarters that measures taken by the city corporations and other authorities to destroy larvae of Aedes mosquito are not proving to be effective.
From January to October 30, a total of 37,151 patients were admitted to different hospitals, including 25,471 of them in Dhaka city.
Two fresh deaths from dengue in the 24 hours till Sunday morning raised this year's official fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 136. This is the second-highest deaths on record after the 179 deaths recorded in 2019.
During the last 24 hours, 1,020 more patients were hospitalized with the viral fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Meanwhile, the 5th inter-ministerial meeting on the prevention of mosquito-borne diseases arranged by the local government department was held at the Secretariat on Sunday.
Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam, while addressing the meeting, said neighbouring countries are suffering more from the dengue outbreak than Bangladesh.
“India reported some 200,000 dengue cases on Saturday. Cases and death rates are especially high in Kolkata,” said the minister at a meeting organized to review the activities of the city corporations and other ministries to combat dengue.
The minister later said that till October 1, Singapore had reported 28,196 cases, but the numbers have increased since then. “Some 37,950 dengue cases were reported in Malaysia, 94,355 cases in Indonesia, and 145,650 cases in the Philippines.
On the other hand, the minister said Bangladesh had reported 33,923 cases till October 26, which is a lot less than most neighbouring countries.
Bangladesh did not have Aedes mosquitoes before, but foreign flights may have brought them here, the minister has alleged.
“Neither had we had the Aedes mosquitoes nor the disease here in Bangladesh. The mosquitoes came from foreign countries by flight or with some passengers,” he said.
The minister said Bangladesh did not suffer too much from dengue before 2019. “We did not have much experience with the disease. But after 2020, we understood the viral fever more and knew which sectors needed interventions.”
He added that in 2021, Bangladesh reported some 20,000 dengue patients and few deaths. However, in 2022, a dengue outbreak has been reported in several countries, including Bangladesh.
Regarding the possibility of dengue cases declining any time soon, the minister said: “Generally, we have noticed that dengue cases see a declining trend from September. However, climate change has been affecting the number of cases. It is sad to say that October is coming to an end, but there is no sign that cases are declining this time.”
He also said Bangladesh's population density is one of the main reasons why the mosquito-borne virus spreads so quickly here.
The government has been importing materials that are needed to kill mosquitoes, especially the Aedes mosquito, since the beginning of the year.
“Mayors of both city corporations collected the gadgets and were allocated Tk2 crore and Tk5 crore,” the minister said.