The month of July has already proved deadly as it alone saw 168 deaths till Wednesday morning, with the overall body count reaching 215 since January. It translates into 13 deaths every two days so far this month.
Alarmingly, 115 dengue patients have died since July 15. This means almost 10 deaths on average a day in the last 11 days ending Wednesday.
Also, the harrowing figures apply to the daily caseload too as 32,363 positive cases were registered in just 26 days.
The daily death toll escalated since July 15 which saw the 100th fatality, following the 50th death on July 1, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The 150th and 200th fatalities came in on July 20 and 25 respectively, meaning it took exactly five days for the grim feats to be recorded.
The country logged 281 dengue deaths in 2022 – the highest on record after 179 deaths recorded in 2019.
Dhaka TribuneSo, the spiralling daily tolls coupled with skyrocketing caseloads beg the question: Is Bangladesh set for the highest deaths from dengue this year?
Warning of tougher days ahead, entomologist Professor Kabirul Bashar of Jahangirnagar University said: “We still have time to control dengue because August is the peak month for dengue outbreak.
“And we need to grow mass awareness to tackle the disease,” he suggested, adding that the crisis is highly likely to prevail in September too.
A steep rise in new dengue cases is also noticed in the last few days.
With the highest single-day caseload of 2,653 recorded on Wednesday, the country saw 11,898 new cases in a span of just five days starting July 22. The daily caseload never dropped below the threatening 2,000 mark over the period.
Additionally, this month's caseload so far is almost 5.5 times higher than that of June when 5,956 people tested positive for the mosquito-borne illness.
However, despite the worsening dengue crisis and calls from experts and medics, the government looks reluctant to declare a public health emergency.
