More than 1,000 individuals in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this yr, the nation’s worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness, which is rising in frequency as a result of local weather change.

Dengue is a illness endemic to tropical areas and causes excessive fevers, complications, nausea, vomiting, muscle ache and, in essentially the most critical circumstances, bleeding that may result in dying.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that dengue — and different illnesses brought on by mosquito-borne viruses similar to chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika — are spreading quicker and additional as a result of local weather change.

Figures from Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Health Services revealed on Sunday evening mentioned 1,006 individuals had died, amongst greater than 200,000 confirmed circumstances.

The company’s former director Be-Nazir Ahmed mentioned the variety of deaths up to now this yr was larger than each earlier yr mixed since 2000.

“It’s a massive health event, both in Bangladesh and in the world,” he advised AFP on Monday.

The new figures dwarf the earlier highest complete from 2022, when 281 deaths have been recorded for the complete yr.

Among the lifeless are 112 kids aged 15 and below, together with infants.

– Repeat infections –

Scientists have attributed this yr’s outbreak to irregular rainfall and warmer temperatures through the annual monsoon season which have created very best breeding situations for mosquitoes.

“It’s not happening only in Bangladesh — many tropical and sub-tropical countries are experiencing dengue this year,” Kabirul Bashar, a zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, advised AFP in September.

The Aedes mosquito that carries dengue thrives at “an optimum temperature for the multiplication of the virus”, he added. “Global climate change is playing a role in providing this temperature level.”

Bangladesh has recorded circumstances of dengue from the Sixties however documented its first outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever, a extreme and generally deadly symptom of the illness, in 2000.

The virus that causes the illness is now endemic to Bangladesh, which has seen a development of worsening outbreaks for the reason that flip of the century.

Most circumstances are recorded through the July-to-September monsoon season, the months which convey the overwhelming majority of the nation’s annual rainfall, together with occasional floods and landslides.

However, lately, hospitals in Bangladesh have additionally begun to confess sufferers affected by the illness throughout winter months.

Those with repeat infections are at larger threat of problems.

Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, a health care provider at Dhaka’s Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, mentioned most sufferers admitted at his hospital have been struggling their second or third circumstances of dengue.

“When people have dengue for the second, third or fourth time, the severity is increased. The number of deaths are also higher,” he advised AFP.

“Many are coming to us when it’s already late in their illness,” he mentioned. “Then it’s really complicated to treat them.”

Dengue wards in Dhaka’s main hospitals are full of bedridden sufferers mendacity beneath mosquito nets, below the watchful and nervous eyes of members of the family.

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