Shawdesh Desk:

At least 13 more people, including nine in the Dhaka city, died of dengue in the past 24 hours till Tuesday morning across Bangladesh.

This was the highest single-day reported death toll since January this year.

A total of eight dengue deaths were reported on Monday, which now turned into the second highest daily official death toll with the new record.

At least 1,533 more dengue patients were hospitalised across the country in the past 24 hours ending 8:00am on Tuesday. Of them, 779 were reported in Dhaka city and 754 in other places outside the capital city, said a press release of the Directorate General of Health Services.

The mosquito-borne viral disease forced 24,000 people to admit to the health facilities across the country of which, 18,304 were reported in Dhaka city.

A total of 16,022 dengue patients were hospitalised and 80 died in 18 days of July, showing an unbridled rise of dengue infections.

According to the data, 566 dengue patients were hospitalised in January, 166 in February, 111 in March, 143 in April, 1,036 in May and 5,956 in June.

At least six people died of dengue in January, three in February, two in April, two in May and 34 in June.

No deaths were reported in March, according to the data.

On Monday, at least 5,569 dengue patients, including 3,443 in Dhaka city are undergoing treatment at public and private health facilities in the country.

Public health officials and experts have warned that the dengue situation might get out of control this year unless the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes is controlled.

The DGHS, in its pre-monsoon survey, found the highest mosquito density in five years in Dhaka city areas amid allegations of failure to contain Aedes mosquito breeding grounds against the city authorities.

In the pre-monsoon Aedes Survey 2023 disseminated on July 4, the DGHS found larvae of Aedes mosquitoes in 43.53 per cent of multi-story buildings, 21.31 per cent of independent houses and 18.21 per cent of construction sites.

Dengue hospitalisation was reported 28,429 and 62,382 respectively in 2021 and 2022.

The highest number of hospitalised dengue cases was 1,01,354 in 2019.

A dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000 when 5,551 people were hospitalised and 93 died, according to the DGHS data.