Dengue surge feared in countryside

A dengue surge may take place outside capital Dhaka this year due to lack of adequate budget and clean-up drives across the country to destroy the mosquito breeding.
Dengue infections may surpass the record-breaking 2023 outbreak, the health directorate forecast.
It said the municipalities are not well-prepared to tackle any emerging situation from the mosquito-borne disease.
This year's January has witnessed 14 dengue deaths and 1,035 hospitalisations, which is higher than that of the month in the last 24 years, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Dengue outbreaks hit the country hard last year with record numbers of deaths and infections.
However, municipalities do not have any visible preparations to deal with any possible dengue outbreak, health experts and entomologists said while talking to the FE.
They, however, cited insufficient budget allocation from the local government division as the major causes for dengue outbreak.
They stressed the need for waste management or clean-up drives to destroy dengue breeding.
The local government division allocated Tk 400 million for dengue control, sanitation and promotion in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said in a survey in November last year that overall waste management expenditure was 0.08 per cent of the GDP in FY 2020-21.
In the fiscal year, the waste management cost per capita for 340 municipalities was Tk 558.08.
Entomologist Prof Kabirul Bashar, a teacher of Zoology at Jahangirnagar University, has forecast that dengue infection is likely to prevail this year too.
"The dengue infection might outshine the grim 2023 outbreak outside Dhaka," he told the FE.
But districts, upazilas and municipalities are not prepared in terms of insecticides, clean-up capacity and skilled manpower to deal with any major dengue outbreak, he lamented.
"We have been extending our forecasts to the authorities concerned and call for planned and precautionary measures but it seems no one cares," he added.
The municipalities of the country do not have a functioning waste management system and well-equipped cleaning drives that are required to stop any possible dengue outbreak, he pointed out.
Virologist Dr Mushtuq Hussain also feared that dengue might surpass last year's fatalities as it already took a dangerous look in January.
The 'conventional' drives against dengue mosquito would not come into effect this time, he said.
"We need a major change in the healthcare system too and bring decentralization in it. If we don't have space in the hospital then how will we give treatment to patients," he questioned.
Health specialists suggest the health ministry shoulder leading responsibility.
Public health expert and former DGHS director Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed told the FE that all 64 districts reported dengue outbreaks last year.
"We don't have healthcare capacity outside Dhaka while the local government doesn't have entomological capacity to tackle any dengue outbreak," he added.
The local government gives less priority to public health services, which is unlikely to be found in global practice.
"This is a faulty attitude (of LGRD ministry)," he alleged.
He, therefore, has suggested hiking the dengue management budget and shouldering the dengue management responsibility to the health ministry instead.
"The health ministry has a successful record of dealing with malaria outbreaks in the country and has a better capacity to tackle such a viral disease," Ahmed added.
Habibur Rahman, joint secretary at the Local Government Division, told the FE that they already provided the allocated money for the municipalities and "we can't give further the allocation outside."
If needed, municipalities across the country can use their own money in dengue and waste management, he suggests.

[email protected]