Shawdesh Desk:

The country is yet to have any information about mutation of dengue virus despite counting the highest ever death and high daily hospitalisation due to the mosquito-borne viral disease.

Knowing the virus variants, if any, is very important for a pragmatic preventive action, treatment and vector management plan, virologists said.

Observing the changing nature and symptoms of the disease, they suspect that the RNA virus might have mutated like other RNA viruses that mutate for survival.

Physicians observed many dengue patients getting admitted to hospitals with changed symptoms.

The authorities are, however, still ignoring the genome sequencing of the virus, said virologists and doctors.

The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research director Tahmina Shirin, also professor of microbiology, said that they were serotyping dengue to find the dominating variant of the four dengue serotypes.

She said that the government institute responsible for researching epidemiological and communicable disease could not yet start dengue genome sequencing to find found mutation, if any, due to lack of required reagents.

‘We have asked the government for the reagents but yet to get,’ she said.

She, however, said that the IEDCR found Den-2 and Den-3 serotypes of dengue were dominating in the country.

Each of the four variants is further subdivided into distinct genotypes, she added.

Among the four, Den-2 and Den-3 variants are more severe and those are causing high fatality and hospitalisation, virologists and physicians said.

Former Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University vice-chancellor and virology professor Nazrul Islam said that there was a possibility of mutation of the virus.

‘We should know it even for immunisation against the virus,’ he said.

The public health campaigner and virologists said that had the virus mutated into different variants the control measures must be changed.

If the authorities want to control mosquito or manage patient or want to vaccinate people, they have to know whether the virus has mutated or not.

Any virus tries to adopt with any changing environment and thus they mutate and create new variant, said Dhaka Medical College virology department head and professor Sultana Shahana Banu.

‘Dengue virus is an RNA virus like the coronavirus. It has profound possibility to mutate but we still unaware of it,’ she said, adding that the sequencing of the virus was very important for better management and treatment.

There are many changes in the nature of dengue vector as Aedes mosquito is now breeding even in dirty water, biting people round the clock as well as other seasons, she said.

Dengue symptoms have also changed as many patients are diagnosed with dengue but have no symptoms like fever, pain or vomiting.

The virologists said that dengue was not like Covid-19 which spread across the world and whole world fought against it and they shared knowledge and technics.

In case of dengue, it is not an issue for many developed countries. Bangladesh must find its localised solution of the vector-born viral disease.

BSMMU virology professor Saif Ullah Munshi said that research and surveillance on dengue should be improved to know vector and virus nature and effective management.

He also urged the authorities to adopt scientific vector control measures and change in insecticides.

Directorate General of Health Services in the past 24 hours till Sunday 8:00am reported the highest 2,764 single day hospitalisation with dengue and 10 more deaths across the country.

With the latest, 66,732 people were hospitalised and 313 died of dengue across the country since January.

Earlier on July 30, the country recorded highest 2,731 single day hospitalisation.

In past six days of August, 62 people died and 14,900 were hospitalised.