Bangladesh's record dengue season: Cases top 200,000, deaths near 1,000

Officials with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Dhaka reported an additional 2,425 new dengue patients Saturday, putting the record total to 203,406 cases during the first nine months of 2023.

Nearly 80,000 cases were reported nationally in September alone.

The total year to date is not only an annual record in dengue fever cases in the country, it has doubled the previous high for a single year of 101,354 cases registered in 2019.

This year’s surge in cases has significantly strained the South Asia nation’s already fragile health care system, and hospitals are grappling with the influx of patients, many of whom are suffering severe symptoms of dengue, such as high fever, intense headache, joint and muscle pain, and in severe cases, internal bleeding.

Cases reported outside the capital city of Dhaka have exceeded 120,000, accounting for 69 percent of the total cases.

In addition, the dengue death toll is just short of 1,000 (989), easily eclipsing the previous high of 281 deaths reported in 2022.

The World Health Organization (WHO) previously reported on the circulating serotypes in the current outbreak saying: DENV2 was the predominant circulating serotype in Bangladesh until 2018, when it was replaced by DENV3 as the predominant serotype since 2019.  However, DENV2 has been identified as the primary circulating serotype in this outbreak, and this may result in more severe dengue infections and hospitalizations as a result of a second infection with a heterologous serotype.

Bangladesh has adopted infrastructural and behavioral modification activities to combat this disease and now it looks as if a vaccine is on the horizon.

Researchers from icddr,b and the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in the US have conducted clinical trials for a vaccine in Bangladesh and the results have shown safety and immune responsiveness in both children and adults, making it a possible game-changer.

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

Dengue is a disease caused by a virus spread through mosquito bites. The disease can take up to 2 weeks to develop with illness generally lasting less than a week.

Health effects from dengue include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, muscle and joint pain, and minor bleeding.

Dengue can become severe within a few hours. Severe dengue is a medical emergency, usually requiring hospitalization.

In severe cases, health effects can include hemorrhage (uncontrolled bleeding), shock (seriously low blood pressure), organ failure, and death.