DGHS orders effective steps to curb dengue

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Sunday forwarded a set of recommendations to the government on dengue control as the hospitals have seen a growing number of patients of the Aedes mosquito-borne disease this year.
The directorate placed the recommendations at a press conference at its office in the city.
Additional Director General of the DGHS Prof Dr Ahmedul Kabir said at the press briefing the directorate has already issued a specific guideline for dengue treatment including test fees and the use of platelets.
Everyone should follow the guideline and the hospitals should provide treatment accordingly, he directed at the briefing.
"We're regularly assisting city corporations with dengue patients' information and mapping. But we think they (city corporation authorities) need to take more effective steps," he said.
The country this year has started recording an increasing number of dengue cases even before the breeding season of the Aedes mosquito starts.
The number of dengue cases has been higher from January to May this year than the five corresponding months of the last year.
A total of 264 dengue patients were admitted to hospitals from January to May in 2022 while the number has already crossed 1,500 in the last five months this year, according to the DGHS.
The country on Sunday recorded 67 dengue cases, including 58 in the city.
As many as 209 patients remained hospitalised as of Sunday across the country, including 180 in Dhaka.
A total of 1,771 patients, including 1,177 in Dhaka, were admitted to hospitals this year while 13 people died of the disease, according to the DGHS.
The health directorate also warned the private healthcare centres that they could not charge over Tk 500 for conducting a dengue test while the government facilities take only Tk100 for the service.
After Dhaka city, Cox's Bazar has the highest number of dengue patients in the country.
The number of dengue cases is increasing among the Rohingya population of the district, DGHS official Dr Nazmul Islam said at the conference.
This year, 1,666 dengue patients have been identified in Rohingya camps.
Due to security reasons, management of dengue in the camp is difficult, said the health department official, adding the number was higher last year as well.
However, the health department and the team of the upazila health complex there are working seriously, he added.
Statistically, Dhaka South has more dengue cases, Dr Nazmul said.
"Our work is patient management. It is the local government's responsibility to see where dengue incidence is higher and take necessary measures," he added.
Director (non-communicable disease control) of DGHS Prof Dr Md Robed Amin said an unplanned city is being developed in Dhaka which is among the major causes of the alarming dengue situation.
The DGHS' recommendations include providing adequate dengue screening kits in all government-run hospitals and assigning additional medicine specialists as resident physicians in the hospitals in case of high incidence of dengue.
Adequate number of mosquito nets should be distributed among patients in hospitals; labs should be kept open 24/7 in officially dedicated 21 centers across the country for platelets, said the recommendations.
The surroundings of the hospitals should be kept clean and selling green coconuts should be stopped around the hospital premises.
Geo location tracing is very important as dengue is a vector-borne disease.
Therefore, the mobile phone number and full address of the dengue patient must be properly recorded and stored.
A control room should be opened jointly by IEDCR and the Disease Control Wing of the DGHS. Interested doctors are requested to contact the DGHS for necessary training.

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