More than a thousand people have died from dengue in Bangladesh since the beginning of the year, according to official data, in what represents the worst epidemic of the mosquito-borne disease ever recorded in the country.
Figures from Dhaka’s Directorate General of Health Services were released on Sunday night and indicate that 1,006 people have died out of more than 200,000 confirmed cases in the country.
According to former Health Services Director Be-Nazir Ahmed, the number of deaths recorded since the beginning of the year is higher than the figures for all previous years combined since 2000, when Bangladesh recorded its first dengue epidemic.
“This is an event of great importance for health, both in Bangladesh and around the world,” Ben-Nazir Ahmed told Agence France Presse.
“The epidemic is putting enormous pressure on the health system” in Bangladesh, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference last month.
Dengue is a disease endemic to tropical areas that causes high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and, in the most severe cases, hemorrhages that can cause death.
Dengue fever and other diseases caused by mosquito-borne viruses are spreading faster and further due to climate change, the WHO has warned.
Source: TSF
