The director general of health services (DGHS), while disclosing the results of a survey conducted by his organization, has made an observation that most people would endorse.
The ongoing dengue situation is unlikely to improve before winter, as the temperature is still warm and rains are pouring in almost daily across the country during autumn, he told the newsmen on Wednesday.
The survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of Aedes species and frequency of probable and potential breeding sources and their proliferation in different types of houses across the city.
The directorate general of health services is not responsible for destroying the breeding grounds of Aedes using various methods. It, however, does have a major role to play in creating greater awareness among the population about removing all Aedes breeding grounds. The DGHS has to ensure proper treatment for all dengue-affected people coming to government hospitals. Besides, as a watchdog body in the health sector, the DGHS has to protect dengue-afflicted patients from exploitation by a section of private hospitals.
Undoubtedly, dengue has assumed an epidemic form in Bangladesh that can boast of creating all-time global records, in terms of the number of dengue patients and deaths. More than 1,000 people have so far died and 0.214 million infected by the dengue virus so far this year, according to an official count. The actual number could be three to four times more in both cases.
Until a couple of years back, dengue usually remained confined to two city centres---Dhaka and Chattogram---and their peripheries. Now it has travelled even to remote villages. This could be the reason behind the climb of death figures and the number of patients.
The dengue situation would not have turned so devastating had there been enough steps to contain the disease in Dhaka alone. Two Dhaka city corporations are primarily responsible for dealing with the vectors. Of course, the residents of Dhaka are to watch keenly that they do not harbour any Aedes breeding grounds. It is, however, indisputable that the two city corporations have failed utterly in their job of combating dengue. The top notches of these representative bodies, perhaps, are aware of that. That is why these days they hardly make any mention of dengue and Aedes while speaking publicly. This conscious retreat appears to be a good strategy, for some unrealistic or baseless comments often give rise to sour feelings among the public.
What is, however, surprising is that the city corporations have not been making any visible move to deal with a problem when, on an average, 15 to 20 people are dying of dengue every day. The actual death figure could be even more, as all the statistics are not available with the DGHS.
It is unlikely, that the city corporations or any other authority would do anything tangible before the next dry season to combat Aedes. The entities that are supposed to deal with the problem have given up even before putting up an effective fight against Aedes.
So, the observation of the DGHS that dengue will continue until next winter holds water. Under the circumstances, everybody would expect that the city corporations and pourashavas across the country would get prepared much ahead of the next rainy season with all their armouries to fight the deadly dengue virus. Dengue is not a problem only for Dhaka and Chattogram. It has spread to every corner of the country. The government will have to allocate sufficient funds in the next national budget to deal with the disease and ensure proper spending of the same.
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