Bangladesh faces worst-ever dengue outbreak, death toll crosses 1,000

Bangladesh has recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to dengue fever, marking the country's worst outbreak. The frequency of the mosquito-borne disease is increasing due to climate change.

Dengue, a disease endemic to tropical regions causes high fever,headache, nausea, vomiting andmuscle pain. In the most serious cases, it causes bleeding that can lead to death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that dengue -- and other diseases caused by mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika -- are spreading faster and further due to climate change.

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Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services on Sunday night released figures that said that 1,006 people had died. There have been more than 20,000 confirmed cases.

The agency's former director Be-Nazir Ahmed said the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000.

"It's a massive health event, both in Bangladesh and in the world," he told AFP on Monday.

The previous highest yearly total of deaths was recorded in 2022. There were 281 deaths in the entire year.

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Scientists have blamed irregular rainfall and hotter temperatures during annual monsoon season this year for spike in dengue cases.

"It's not happening only in Bangladesh -- many tropical and sub-tropical countries are experiencing dengue this year," Kabirul Bashar, a zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, told AFP in September.

He told the news agency that the Aedes mosquito which carries dengue thrives at "an optimum temperature for the multiplication of the virus."

"Global climate change is playing a role in providing this temperature level," he added.

Bangladesh has recorded cases of dengue from the 1960s but documented its first outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever, a severe and sometimes fatal symptom of the disease, in 2000.

The Dengue virus has now become endemic to Bangladesh. The country has seen gradually worsening outbreaks since the turn of the century.

The cases usually spike between the months of July and September, the monsoon season.

"When people have dengue for the second, third or fourth time, the severity is increased. The number of deaths are also higher," said Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, a doctor at Dhaka's Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, as quoted by AFP.

"Many are coming to us when it's already late in their illness," he said. "Then it's really complicated to treat them."

(With inputs from agencies)

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