With dengue spreading in Dhaka and elsewhere, Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has ordered hospitals, especially those in the capital, to increase the number of beds. Opening the field hospital set up on the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) grounds is also under consideration.
The instructions followed a meeting on the dengue situation chaired by Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain at the Secretariat on Sunday.
Professor Dr Nurul Islam, director of hospital services at the Directorate General of Health Services, said some DMCH patients will be moved to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. Mugda Medical College Hospital has been asked to add more dengue beds, and Kurmitola Multidisciplinary Hospital, rather than Kurmitola General Hospital, is to be ready for patients coming from outside Dhaka.
Most patients are in Dhaka, he said, so hospital directors in the capital have been asked to add beds. Public hospitals rarely turn patients away in a crisis, but when demand outstrips capacity patients suffer, so hospitals outside Dhaka have also been told to prepare.
According to the directorate, 90,356 people had been admitted to hospital with dengue this year as of 6 October, and 281 had died. Dhaka division has recorded the most deaths, 127, followed by Khulna with 55, Chattogram 25, Barishal 24, Mymensingh 23, Rajshahi 19, Rangpur 6 and Sylhet 2.
Photo: A.M.R. / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
Source: Ittefaq
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