Mukta Khatun, a college student, was feeling feverish in the middle of the night. A day later, a quack doctor in a distant Bangladeshi village hastily prescribed her antibiotics and her fever subsided soon afterwards. Her family thought the worst was over. After a pause of three days, Ms. Mukta, 20, felt stomach pain, followed by a bout of vomiting. She was then rushed to an ill-equipped hospital in the district of Magura, about 50 km away. Doctors there recommended her transfer to a better government hospital in Faridpur after she was diagnosed with dengue. After Ms. Mukta landed in the Faridpur hospital, she was bleeding from her nose. A senior doctor recommended immediate blood transfusion as her platelet count plummeted below 20,000, a red flag that sent her family panicking. Hours after the blood transfusion, her relatives started an eight-hour journey on August 4 towards Dhaka with the patient surviving on saline drip.
In the meantime, her elder brother Sagor Hossain, a professional driver, started scouring hospitals in Dhaka to secure a bed for her. Almost all hospitals and clinics were overrun by tens of thousands of dengue patients. “I went from place to place and there were no beds empty for any new patient. One hospital put my sister on its waiting list,” said Mr. Hossain as he cupped his face in his hands to hide his tears. As the day wore on, he finally found a bed, a bit costlier, at the Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital.
Ms. Mukta’s case mirrors the common battle for life in Bangladesh, where more than 32,000 dengue cases have been reported in recent times from across the country. Public health officials recorded as many as 2,400 cases of hospital admissions in a daily count. The dengue outbreak that took an alarming turn in July has so far killed about 100 people this year, according to the local media, but the number is far less in the government’s record-keeping. The first dengue case in Bangladesh was recorded in 2000 when the viral disease killed 93 people out of the 5,551 reported cases. This year’s numbers dwarfed all previous records.
What went wrong?
Health specialists blamed it on the changing weather pattern, rains followed by extreme heat, stagnant water, cities’ appalling failure in vector and waste management and, finally, human behaviour.
“Climate change and intermittent rains are partly responsible for the massive spread of the disease this year. Stagnant water in and around construction sites in Dhaka is another potential breeding source of Aedes mosquitoes,” said M.M. Akhtaruzzaman, manager of the malaria and dengue programme at the Directorate General of Health Services.
The global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades. About half of the world’s population is now at risk, according to the World Health Organization. One estimate indicates 390 million dengue infections every year, of which 96 million manifest clinically.
The Philippines declared a “national dengue epidemic” after at least 622 people lost their lives this year. At least 1,46,000 cases were recorded in the country from January to July 20, a 98% increase from a year ago. “That means Bangladesh is not the only country suffering from the disease. It’s a global health issue,” said Mr. Akhtaruzzaman.
After the disease broke out on a scale never seen before, two Mayors of Dhaka faced criticism for their failure to contain the mosquito menace and improve vector management in a city of 17 million people. To speed up efforts to combat dengue, the government forked out 150 million taka ($1.7 million) for the two city corporations. Earlier, the National Board of Revenue removed all tariffs on the imports of dengue test kits and reagents to boost supply. The Dhaka Medical College Hospital, one of the best-equipped state-run facilities, is setting up intensive care units to cope with the rush of patients.
Over at the Holy Family hospital, Ms. Mukta showed signs of recovery, with her blood platelet count shooting past 1,25,000, taking stress off her family. She regained her strength bit by bit. She was released from the hospital on August 8 as her condition remained stable. But countless others may not be just as lucky.
Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka.
