Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said that more dengue patients are dying due to availing treatment too late.
The minister said this in his remarks to journalists after meeting with the ambassadors of Nepal and Switzerland at the secretariat on Monday.
“Dengue patients are delaying in coming to the hospital and seeking treatment. During the initial stage, the dengue-infected people think that they’ve been suffering from mild fever or cold. Sometimes dengue virus causes hemorrhage or internal bleeding due to which it becomes tough to save a patient. This year, 72 percent of deaths caused by dengue have happened within three days of patients coming to the hospital. That’s why people should immediately test themselves if they’re suffering from fever,” said Maleque.
The health minister added that spraying insecticide by the city corporations is proving to be ineffective as a vector-control measure in containing dengue virus.
“After much spraying, we’ve seen that the amount of mosquitoes hasn’t decreased. This means that besides people, mosquitoes have also developed antibodies in them. Till now, we’ve identified 58,000 dengue patients this year among whom 36,000 were from the city corporation areas. As more people live in cities and there are a huge number of drainage systems and garbage, it’s natural that the city people will be more affected by dengue. However, people living in cities have to be cautious if they want to protect themselves from the mosquito-borne virus,” Maleque added.
