HealthDengue Prevention Foundation Bangladesh is training schoolchildren to find and destroy Aedes breeding sites at school, at home and in their neighbourhoods, with results to be measured by the house, container and Breteau indices.
HealthIn the first seven days of November, 12,580 people caught dengue and 39 died. Experts say a changing climate is lengthening the mosquito breeding season, and repeat infections are raising the risk of death.
HealthDengue has killed 40 people in Chattogram district this year, 21 of them women. Eight of those women, 38.1 per cent, were pregnant, and their unborn babies died too. Doctors say dengue in pregnancy puts both mother and child at serious risk.
HealthA DSCC and health directorate survey of 2,250 homes found larvae in buckets, drums, mugs, flower pots and basements; special spraying has begun in 29 wards and primary schools will be cleaned every Saturday.
OpinionWriting in Dhaka Post, Professor Kabirul Bashar notes 133,367 hospital admissions and 418 deaths this year to 30 October, and calls for a national institution led by an entomologist.
OpinionWriting in Sarabangla, journalist and columnist Mir Abdul Alim says a retail price frozen since 2015 and rising costs have cut saline output, and calls for a quick pricing and supply policy. The views are the writer's own.
HealthMany people with fever and body aches test negative for dengue and chikungunya; IEDCR says there is no evidence of a new virus, and influenza, RSV or adenovirus may be the cause.
FisheriesIn tests by Jahangirnagar University researchers, napit khoira, zebrafish and blue panchax ate many more Culex and Aedes larvae than the imported guppy, even in polluted water.
HealthMUST-CloudNet, an internet-connected trap built by University of Dhaka researchers, mimics the wingbeat of female mosquitoes to draw in male Aedes, photographs them and uses artificial intelligence to identify and count them.
HealthDr Shahnoor Sharmin, professor of medicine at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, says the change of season brings flu-like viruses, allergy and asthma, dry skin and joint pain, and that anyone with a fever should be tested for dengue early.
HealthMagura's 250-bed district hospital admitted 23 dengue patients in August and 83 in September, then 34 in just two days on 14-15 October; nets are provided but patients do not use them, and other patients are being kept on the dengue ward.
HealthMugda Medical College Hospital's two dengue wards held 149 patients, many on the floor; families are satisfied with doctors and nurses but face long queues for tests and reports, and for the lifts.
HealthThe government will set up special committees in 20 zones of Dhaka's two city corporations to oversee dengue prevention, cleaning, canal demarcation and re-excavation, and tree planting.
