Bangladesh confirmed 17 more dengue – a viral infection – cases in the 24 hours to Friday morning.

Sixteen new patients were admitted to the hospitals of Dhaka and one outside it, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

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Sixty-one dengue patients, including 59 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.

This year, the DGHS has recorded 398 dengue cases and 337 recoveries so far. The directorate has not yet reported any death from the mosquito-borne viral disease.

Dengue – a leading cause of serious illness and death in some Asian and Latin American countries – was first reported in Bangladesh in 2000 and claimed 93 lives. In three years, the fatality number almost fell to zero.

However, 105 dengue patients, including 95 in Dhaka division, died in 2021.

Dengue is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas.

About 4 billion people, almost half of the world's population, live in areas with a risk of dengue, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Each year, up to 400 million people get infected with dengue while approximately 100 million get sick from infection, and 40,000 die from severe dengue, it says.

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Because there are four different dengue viruses, a person can be infected by the virus up to four times in their life. The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, aches and pains and a rash.

"There is no specific treatment for dengue or severe dengue. Early detection of disease progression associated with severe dengue, and access to proper medical care lowers fatality rates of severe dengue to below 1 percent," according to the World Health Organization.