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Seventeen more deaths were reported from dengue in 24 hours till 8am Monday, raising the fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 839 this year.
During the period, 3,084 more patients were hospitalised with the viral fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), reports UNB.
Of the new patients, 894 were admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the rest outside it, according to DGHS.
A total of 10,032 dengue patients, including 3,861 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
So far, the DGHS has recorded 170,768 dengue cases and 159,897 recoveries.
In the first two weeks of September, dengue has claimed the lives of 174 people across the country. Some 33,336 cases were reported during the same period.
On September 2, Bangladesh recorded 21 dengue-related deaths, the highest number in a single day this year, while 20 dengue-linked deaths, the second highest deaths this year, were reported on September 7.
This year, 839 deaths, the highest in a year since dengue was detected in 2000, has been reported so far from dengue while 281 died last year.
The authorities have so far recorded the highest number of dengue positive cases outside Dhaka in August this year, meaning the mosquito disease gripped the entire country.
August witnessed 71,976 dengue positive cases, the highest cases in a single month since dengue outbreak began in 2000 in the country, while 342 dengue-related deaths were reported in the current month, said DGHS.
July alone recorded 43,854 dengue positive cases with 204 deaths, it said.
The prevalence of dengue cases in Bangladesh has increased 10 times since last year and the deaths have increased almost thrice, according to a health expert.
"Dengue positive cases have increased 10 times and death three times between mid-September 2022 and mid-September 2023," Professor Dr Md Golam Sharower, Head of Department of Entomology at National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, told a seminar recently.
According to the DGHS, Bangladesh reported 1,01,354 dengue cases in 2019; 1,405 cases in 2020; 28,429 cases in 2021; and 62,382 cases in 2022.
It also said that the country recorded 179 dengue related deaths in 2019; seven deaths in 2020; and 105 deaths in 2021.
