Dengue: Toll nears 1700

The number of dengue cases in Bangladesh this year has increased by 188 to 320,460 in the latest daily count, reports bdnews24.com.

The death toll from the mosquito-borne disease also rose by four to 1,697 in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

In Dhaka, hospitals admitted 41 patients in this period while the other districts recorded 147 new cases.

Of the 1,101 dengue patients undergoing treatment in hospitals across the country in the morning, 360 were in Dhaka and 741 outside the capital.

After a record 79,598 dengue cases and 396 deaths in September amid the worst outbreak of the disease, 67,769 cases and

359 deaths were reported in October. The number of cases in August was 71,976, with 342 deaths.

The death toll in November was 274. As many as 40,716 new dengue cases were recorded last month.

Experts have blamed a prolonged monsoon and rising temperature, along with a lack of effective measures to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the known carrier of the virus, for the outbreak.