The overall dengue situation has worsened across the country, claiming lives of 214 people since January to October 14 this year.
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has been reported 'major dengue hotspot' where half of the total fatalities have taken place.
Public health experts and entomologists forecasted earlier that the dengue situation might worsen further in October, drawing attention of the authorities to take action.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) registered a total of 215 deaths from dengue infection until October 14. Of the total, 114 deaths have been reported in the DSCC. As many as 52 deaths have been reported in the last 14 days of October. September saw 80 deaths.
The health authorities have also registered 43,656 cases of hospitalisations countrywide. Of them, 9,363 cases of hospitalisations were reported in the DSCC.
Dengue population has also been found to be higher or above the danger level even before the dengue season begins.
The worst condition, meaning a greater in Breteau index (BI) index, was found in the capital, especially in south Dhaka. DSCC ward No. 13 saw as high as 73.33 per cent in the BI index.
The density of Aedes mosquito larvae in 18 wards of two city corporations in Dhaka city was found above 20 per cent in BI index, the pre-season Aedes Survey-2024 of the DGHS said.
Larvae were found in nearly 15 per cent of houses in the city surveyed. The pre-monsoon survey was conducted from April 17 to 27.
In Bangladesh, July to September is considered as the dengue outbreak period, according to the WHO. The health authorities, however, missed the monsoon Aedes Survey.
"The monsoon survey was crucial to determining appropriate measures beforehand if the situation turns for the worse," Prof Kabirul Bashar, a renowned medical entomologist and zoology teacher at Jahangirnagar University, told the FE.
A team of teachers has conducted a small survey to learn the situation on the ground and forecasted that the dengue situation would worsen further in September and deepen in October.
"We ran a survey and research and forwarded our findings and informed the health and city corporation authorities. But it seems no one cares about the practical situation," Prof Bashar lamented.
He blamed the DSCC authorities for taking the right measures and criticised the denial attitude of DSCC to determine the real situation.
"There are so many major government hospitals in the DSCC area, including the DMCH. Critical patients across the country are referred to those hospitals thus the causality list is high in the DSCC. Both the location and faulty attitude of DSCC towards the anti-dengue campaign are among the major causes of high statistics in DSCC," Prof Bashar explained.
The congested and poor waste management in DSCC also contributed to the spread of dengue, he added.
Virologist and public health specialist Dr Mushtaq Hussain observed that some major hospitals are behind the highest number of casualty registration in the DSCC.
He emphasised the need for taking urgent measures to reform the centralised healthcare system as Bangladesh continues to see the highest dengue death rate in the world.
About 52 people died against 1,000 hospitalisations in the country.
"We are witnessing the highest dengue deaths. We must address the situation. We don't see anti dengue activities at world levels. People have to visit hospitals for testing dengue infection but what we need is to ease the testing to avoid any unexpected death due to dengue infection or late hospitalisation," he added.
He has suggested providing special care for children, pregnant women and people with critical diseases to prevent dengue deaths.
Dr Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan, director hospital at the DGHS, said they are all prepared to provide treatment for dengue patients at hospitals.
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