Helemul Alam

After months of stalling, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday finally announced that 25 people died of dengue at different hospitals across the country this year.

As a person’s chance of being infected with both dengue and Covid-19 is rising, the health directorate has taken an initiative to train doctors involved in dengue treatment across the country tomorrow.

The government only recently decided to set up warning systems in 723 lightning prone areas in the country, even though 2,400 people died in lightning strikes over the past decade, including 19 just yesterday.

Dengue patients have been struggling to find treatment at the public hospitals in the capital as the major facilities are burdened with Covid-19 patients.

Major terminals and depots in the capital have become ideal breeding grounds for Aedes mosquito, the carrier of dengue virus, thanks to puddles formed in discarded tyres and plastic containers.

Most of the dengue patients this year are being infected by Serotype-3, a variant of the dengue virus which can increase mortality risk, warn doctors.

Surpassing the total number of cases last year, at least 1,430 dengue patients were hospitalised just this month, indicating an alarming rise in the Aedes-borne disease.

The government recently distributed cash support worth Tk 450 crore to around 17.24 lakh day labourers, transport workers, and small traders, as part of its recent announcement of a Tk 3,200 crore relief package for the ultra-poor and destitute. It also increased allocations for OMS in urban areas and for food assistance in rural areas through the district administration offices.

Around one and a half years ago, Dhaka North City Corporation procured three turntable ladders for dousing flames at high-rise buildings.

Mohammad Azgar Ali was excited when he came to Dhupkhola cattle market in Dhaka with his 16 bulls -- hoping to make good profit like last year. But that excitement dissipated as he had to incur loss when selling most of the animals and some remain unsold.

The sale of sacrificial animals gathered pace in the capital’s cattle markets two days before the Eid-ul-Azha yesterday, although traders were charging higher prices compared to last year.

With only two days remaining before Eid-ul-Azha, selling of sacrificial animals is yet to gain momentum at markets in Dhaka.

The government’s condition of maintaining health guidelines for allowing cattle markets ahead of Eid-ul-Azha seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

The lockdown has had severe consequences for most businesses. Behind closed shutters, jobs were lost and stocks rotted away. But what happens to businesses that are based on the trading of real lives?

Even though the cattle markets in the capital were scheduled to start from Saturday, they are already witnessing large crowds as not only traders are bringing in sacrificial animals, people are also thronging there to purchase those, even amid the lockdown. 

After a lull last year, dengue infections have been on the rise again with the spike of cases indicating a situation similar to that of 2019 when Bangladesh recorded over one lakh dengue cases and 179 deaths.

The fight to control Aedes mosquito population has largely remained ineffective in the absence of a vector control policy, resulting in the rise of viral dengue fever in the country over the past few years.

It was a Saturday afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Din Islam was collecting garbage from different houses at Sarafatganj Lane in Gandaria—his ankle covered with a polythene bag.

The government’s efforts to protect the proverbial heart of the country, its capital, from a worsening Covid-19 situation could be foiled by the influx of people from riskier districts to cattle markets in the lead-up to Eid-ul-Azha.

With the onset of monsoon in the country creating suitable breeding conditions for Aedes mosquito larvae, the month of June has so far accounted for 59.5 percent of the dengue cases recorded this year.