Over 1,000 people have died from dengue in Bangladesh’s most severe outbreak ever. Official data shows that the ongoing spread of the disease is increasing as more cases are occurring outside of crowded cities. This spread is being caused by the climate crisis and the rising temperatures.
Since January, over 1,000 people have died from a disease carried by mosquitoes. This disease has affected more than 100 children and there have been over 208,000 infections. These numbers were reported by the Bangladesh Directorate General of Health Services on Monday.
Dengue fever is common in the South Asian country and usually happens a lot during the monsoon season between July and September. However, this year there were more cases starting at the end of April.
Scientists say that the long monsoon season with higher temperatures and unpredictable, heavy rain made it perfect for the Aedes mosquito to breed. This mosquito spreads the dengue disease.
More sick people coming to the hospitals have made it hard to take care of everyone. There aren’t enough beds or enough staff to help them, according to the news.
The number of deaths from the outbreak is almost four times more than last year when 281 people died. In just September, Bangladesh health authorities said there were over 79,600 reported cases and 396 deaths.
There is also a worry that the outbreak may continue into the colder months. Last year, the number of dengue cases was highest in October and the most deaths happened in November.
Dengue is a type of sickness caused by a virus. It makes people feel like they have the flu, with symptoms like severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, high fever, and sometimes internal bleeding and death. This disease spreads to humans when a mosquito infected with it bites them. There is no known cure for the disease.
Dengue, also called breakbone fever, is a common disease in over 100 countries. Each year, between 100 million and 400 million people get infected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the past, outbreaks mostly happened in crowded cities like Dhaka, which has over 20 million people. But this year, the number of infections quickly spread to every part of the country, including rural areas, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a recent meeting that the UN agency is helping the Bangladeshi government and authorities “to improve monitoring, testing capabilities, patient care, controlling disease-carrying insects, sharing information about risks, and involving the community” during the outbreak.
However, public health experts in the country are urging for more attention to be given to dengue. They want to focus on preventing the disease by detecting it early and providing proper healthcare. This is because getting dengue again can be more severe and may even lead to death.
These requests for action are not just for Bangladesh. As the Earth gets hotter because of burning fossil fuels, illnesses will happen more often in new parts of the world.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of dengue cases worldwide has increased by eight times in the last 20 years.
As the climate crisis gets worse, diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever that are spread by mosquitoes will probably spread more and affect people’s health even more.
This year, a serious outbreak of dengue has affected South America, specifically Peru, which is experiencing its most severe outbreak ever recorded. The situation in Florida made authorities put several counties on alert. In Asia, there has been a sudden increase in cases in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia, along with other countries. And countries in sub-Saharan Africa, like Chad, have also experienced outbreaks.
According to Abdi Mahamud, the director of WHO’s alert and response team, the outbreaks of diseases are a warning sign of the climate crisis. He also mentioned that an increasing number of countries are facing the challenge of dealing with these diseases.
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