Shawdesh Desk:

An infant died of dengue in Mymensingh while 1,179 other were hospitalised across the country in 24 hours ending at 8:00am on Saturday.

With the latest death, at least 125 people reportedly died of the mosquito-borne viral fever so far this year, though the government put the death figure at 47.

So far this year, at least 62,217 people with dengue were hospitalised across the country.

On Saturday, at least 6,289 were under treatment at different hospitals across the country.

The past 24 hours ending 8am on Friday, at least 609 people were hospitalised with dengue in the districts while 570 were hospitalised in the capital.

This year, the dengue outbreak took a dangerous turn as it crossed all past records, apparently because of the failure of government agencies to take the situation seriously.

While the dengue outbreak initially remained confined to the capital since the first reported occurrence of dengue in 2000, it spread across the country this year starting in the last week of July.

Dengue spread all over Bangladesh just in one week while its severity in outlying areas surpassed the situation in the capital.

The last eight months of this year, at least 62,217 people were hospitalised with dengue across the country, which is more than the total dengue hospitalisation   recorded in 19 years from 2000 to 2018.

In the past 19 years, the DGHS recorded 50,148 cases of dengue patients who were hospitalised.

Since August 15, dengue infections rate started slightly slowing down, though public health experts warned that the infections could increase in September and October — two months that historically witnessed high rate of infections of dengue in Bangladesh since 2000.

On August 15, at least 1933 people were hospitalised with dengue, highest in the last 10 days.

New Age correspondent in Mymensingh reported that a five-month-old boy died of dengue at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital on Friday evening.

The victim was identified as Jarif, son of Mohammad Arif, from Mymensingh city’s Shikarikanda area.

Jarif was taken to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital in a critical condition from a Gazipur hospital around 5:00pm on Friday, said Lakshmi Narayan Majumder, deputy director of MMCH.

He died about an hour after his admission to the hospital, he said.

With the death, five people so far died of dengue at MMCH.

Jarif was living in Gazipur district with his parents. After contracting dengue, he was admitted to the hospital in Gazipur but the hospital authorities asked his parents to shift him to a hospital with ICU facilities, family said.

He was shifted to the MMCH where he died later.