As Earth Heats Up, Bangladesh Reports 1,017 Deaths In Worst Ever Dengue Outbreak

 

More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this year. This is the country’s worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, which is increasing in frequency due to climate change. 

In the past, outbreaks had generally been confined to densely-populated urban centres like the capital Dhaka — home to more than 20 million people.

But as the planet warms up due to climate crisis, more cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been reported away from dense urban centres for the first time.

“All our efforts to control the mosquito population have been ineffective,” Mushtaq Hussain, a consultant at Bangladesh’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told The Daily Star. He said the extended monsoon season is another contributing factor to the high case load.

Fatalities from the record outbreak are almost four times higher than last year, when 281 people died. September alone recorded 396 deaths and more than 79,600 reported cases.