Bangladesh on Dengue fever alert

The fast spread of the deadly dengue fever is sparking fears of an outbreak in Monsoon drenched Bangladesh. With more than 300 cases reported this month, health officials warn the virus is about to topple into an outbreak in the country’s capital, Dhaka. The alert comes as the South Asian country is still being rinsed out by a late, long-lasting monsoon season. Carried by mosquitoes, the virus often appears during monsoon time, usually from July to September. But this year, officials said they had seen a greater number of cases at hospitals and clinics compared with previous years.

Since 1 October, 304 dengue patients had been admitted to hospitals and clinics in Dhaka, according to local media reports. "The number of dengue patients has suddenly gone up," Shah Monir Hossain, director-general of the country’s health service told the United Nations news service. "We don't have any concrete figures of the exact number of patients, but reports from the public and private hospitals and clinics suggest that the number of dengue patients has been on the rise since Eid," he said, talking about Muslim festival Bangladesh celebrated this year from 21 September.

Health officials have urged Bangladeshis not to panic, saying that the health service is quite capable of dealing with the disease. But, last week, Dhaka’s city mayor launched a massive city cleanliness and awareness raising campaign after politicians criticised the city’s clogged sewers and poor mosquito control. Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries, with its people crammed into a delta of rivers that empties into the Bay of Bengal. Poverty is deep and widespread; almost half of the population live on less than one dollar a day

Health workers have reported five or six new cases daily at each of Dhaka's hospitals and clinics, but aid organisation workers warned that the number of people with dengue would be much higher in the city's congested slums, where there is poor sanitation, and few people can afford medical treatment. ''Dengue is basically a disease of the poor,” a senior aid worker told the news service. “In the slums of the city, where one third of its population of over 10 million live, many do not even know that they have the disease. If we take that into account, the dengue figure would be much higher,” he said, adding that "the situation might worsen in the next few days, as the hot humid conditions will help breed more mosquitoes by the second week of October."

Symptoms of dengue include fever, joint pain, nausea and headaches. Most common in children aged under 15, Dengue haemorrhagic fever, a potentially fatal form can cause internal bleeding and circulatory failure. No vaccine is available yet and there is no specific treatment, so a lot hinges on mosquito control.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children