Dengue has been an increasingly bigger concern in Bangladesh over the last few years, and while there have been certain measures taken to prevent it, we are yet to successfully evade an outbreak.
In fact, the dengue outbreak is predicted to worsen this year. Reports suggest that the number of Aedes mosquitoes has increased with the onset of summer, thus raising chances of infections.
This is certainly cause for alarm.
Just last year, we witnessed a change in what we knew to be dengue season, as the number of dengue infections and subsequent deaths reached record highs even outside the supposed months of monsoon.
With climate change severely impacting weather patterns, the rainy season is no longer limited to a few months during the year, making dengue a year-round risk for the country.
It is especially dangerous for cities like Dhaka, where drainage systems and water-logging issues go largely unchecked, creating more and more breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquito across the city.
The mosquitoes have also become immune to the insecticides we have used traditionally, rendering our preventative methods more or less useless at this stage.
This cannot be allowed to get any more out of hand than it already has. Dengue has plagued too many people and claimed too many lives for us to take this warning sitting down.
The authorities must be aggressive in their approach to dengue from now on. City corporations must work on creating more awareness on the issue, and work with the general public to identify and eliminate all possible Aedes breeding grounds. Stronger insecticides must be arranged for as well.
Only with concerted efforts will we be truly able to prevent dengue from becoming even more of a threat than it already is.