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Bangladesh in the grip of an unprecedented dengue epidemic
Dhaka (AFP) – At Mugda Hospital in Dhaka, doctors no longer know where to turn: three of the establishment's ten floors are overflowing with patients suffering from an unprecedented dengue epidemic.
Published on :05/10/2023 - 10:49
Modified :05/10/2023 - 10:48
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This year, the epidemic of dengue, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes, is the worst ever recorded in Bangladesh, with a record 1,030 deaths and more than 210,000 cases confirmed by hospitals, since the beginning of 2023. For the entire previous year, the disease had killed 281 people in the country.
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According to the boss of Mugda hospital, Mohammad Niamatuzzaman, overwhelmed general practitioners had to call on their colleagues in specialized services.
“It’s an emergency, but a long-term emergency,” Mr. Niamatuzzaman told AFP, adding that his establishment has already recorded 158 deaths linked to dengue fever this year, five times more than last year.
- "It scares me"-
More than 1,000 patients, including 200 suffering from dengue fever grouped on three floors, are currently being treated at Mugda hospital with barely 400 beds available. Thousands more are treated on an outpatient basis.
Emergency admitted to hospital and now recovered, Mohammad Sabuj, a 40-year-old jeweler from Konapara on the outskirts of Dhaka, is worried that "almost every household" in his neighborhood has a dengue patient.
“In my workshop, three of the four workers had a fever,” says this father of three boys.
One of his friends, a doctor, died. “That a doctor couldn't save himself scares me,” he adds, “if something happens to me at my age, what will become of my family and my children?”
Although hospital treatment is free, certain medications remain the responsibility of patients. The public medical analysis center is overwhelmed and private laboratories are too expensive for a large part of the population.
Abdul Hakim, 38 years old and a construction worker, watches over his two-year-old son. “Since the day my son had a fever, I have lost my job,” says this father of two children whose salary constitutes the family’s only resources.
“A loan” to save his son
“I pay for tests, medicines among other hospital costs thanks to a loan (...) to treat him,” he confides.
A quarter of dengue patients at Mugda Hospital are children. children. Overall, children under fifteen account for around 10% of deaths.
Bangladesh has had cases of dengue since the 1960s, but its first documented outbreak was in 2000. Scientists attribute the 2023 outbreak to erratic rainfall and warmer temperatures during the monsoon that created ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.
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https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en...proie-à-une-épidémie-de-dengue-sans-précédent
