Special Correspondent
The dengue outbreak in Bangladesh, the worst-ever onslaught of the deadly mosquito-borne disease in country’s history, has hit the headlines in the leading international media outlets. The number of dengue patients continued to rise with 1,477 more patients of the viral fever hospitalized across the country in the last 24 hours until 8am on Wednesday.
US-based news agency Associate Press in a report on Wednesday said Bangladesh is facing its worst-ever dengue fever outbreak as hospitals are flooded with patients, putting a severe strain on the country’s already overwhelmed medical system.
It said the viral infection has spread across the country, with 61 out of 64 districts reporting dengue cases by late Tuesday.
British newspaper The Independent, in a news item captioned ‘Bangladesh dengue outbreak is worst ever’, said more than 13,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease, leading officials to launch a massive public information campaign.
Germany’s public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle in a news item said Bangladesh authorities are struggling to cope with the dengue situation amid massive monsoon rains and floods in the country.
Quoting authorities, it said at least eight people have died and more than 13,000 have taken ill due to a dengue fever outbreak in the South Asian country.
Beijing-based China Daily carried a report of Xinhua which said the situation of dengue has deteriorated in Bangladesh as the viral disease spread out in most parts of the country in less than a month.
Quoting officials, the report said Dhaka and its neighboring districts are more vulnerable to the risk of mosquito-borne diseases and most hospitals and clinics in Dhaka are now crammed with hundreds of new dengue patients every day.
American news-based media outlet CNN said more than 1,000 people in Bangladesh, the majority of whom are children, have been diagnosed with dengue in the last 24 hours, amid the country’s worst outbreak on record.
Tokyo-based international online news magazine said dengue outbreak in Bangladesh has reached epidemic proportions with the situation getting worse every day.American news network newsy.com, Russian TV and Kolkata-based Ei Somoy are also among the media outlets covering the Bangladesh’s dengue outbreak.
Rush to Hospital
Since January, the government said 15,369 dengue patients were hospitalised. Of them, 10,953 were cured and 4,408 others are still undergoing treatment. The government claims that only eight people have died of dengue this year but unofficial accounts say the number higher.
Meanwhile, five people died of dengue in Dhaka and Barishal on Monday and Tuesday. Their deaths were reported by the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.
Most of the dengue cases have been reported from Dhaka. The WHO on July 20 said the dengue situation is alarming in Bangladesh but it was not out of control.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said 973 people were infected by dengue in Dhaka in the last 24 hours.
A fat bill
For 21 hours Hospital charges Tk 1.86 lakh !
Miss Firoza Kabir, a student of Dhaka University, has passed away while undergoing medical treatment for dengue in the capital’s Square Hospital. She was in Square Hospital for just twenty two hours but allegedly the hospital authority has imposed a bill of 1 lakh 86 thousand taka on her family.
Doctors have frequently said that dengue patients do not have to take any medicines except paracetamols. However, Square Hospital’s draft bill shows an amount of 32, 000 taka for medicines.
Firoza Kabir did not require blood at all after getting admitted in Square Hospital but the draft bill shows a figure of 11,550 taka for crosschecking her blood eleven times. A sum of 8,400 taka has been stated on the draft bill for blood plasma. On the other hand, there is a lab charge of 73,000 taka.
The draft bill of Square Hospital for Firoza Kabir’s treatment has meanwhile gone viral on Facebook and other social networks. Most of the people who have come across the draft bill have slammed Square Hospital for the ruthless instance of inhumanity and irrationality.
The outbreak of dengue in Dhaka and other parts of the country has panicked everyone. Under these circumstances the government has fixed BDT 500 (five hundred taka only) for medical tests to diagnose dengue.
Thursday, September 05, 2019
