Home ›› 14 Oct 2022 ›› Front
The country has already started to feel the adverse impact of climate change in its health sector with Dengue transmission rate increasing, speakers said on Thursday.
Expected transmission period has been altered in the last few years and also the number of infections has increased, they said during a press briefing organized by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Thursday morning in the city.
According to DGHS, some 23,282 patients have been admitted into hospitals this year. Of them, 17,259 are from Dhaka. Cox’s Bazar has emerged as the second highest affected area this year.
Some 83 patients have died from the disease till now. Among them, eight died yesterday alone.
This is the highest number of death from dengue in a single day this year.
Director (Mycobacterial Disease Control) of DGHS, Prof Dr Shakil Ahmed, said due to climate change the survival instinct of dengue has increased.
“With the increase of per degree centigrade, the lifespan of the virus and the carrier - aedesaegypti – increased and so did the transmission,” he said.
Mentioning a study carried out by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in 2019 he said people need to be aware for their own good.
According to the report, average economic cost for treating the dengue patient was Tk33, 817 (US$ 406.06) from a household perspective, whereas Tk22, 379 (US$ 268.72) and Tk47, 230 (US$ 567.12) were required for treating dengue cases at public and private hospitals respectively in 2019.
Again Tk6, 076 (US$ 73) was spent by a public hospital per patient for per episode of dengue.
The poorest households spent 139 percent of their total household income on treating dengue cases, which indicated that they often relied on savings, borrowing from friends and families, and even selling assets. Cox’s Bazar emerges as the second hotspot after Dhaka
