City doctor dies from dengue

A female doctor died of dengue fever at a city hospital yesterday. She is the third patient to have died of the disease in the country since January.

Nigar Nahid Dipu, junior consultant of the radiology and imaging department at Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital in the capital’s Uttara, breathed her last at the Intensive Care Unit of Square Hospitals around 10:00am.

She was a student of 32nd batch of Mymensingh Medical College.

Dr Ashif Iqbal, a friend of Nigar, said she died from complications caused by dengue fever, which led to cardiac arrests.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a total of 2,277 people have been infected with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, across the country since January.

Dr Aysha Akther, assistant director at the DGHS control room, said Nigar was admitted to Popular Hospital with high fever at 1:30am on Monday.

She was diagnosed with dengue shock syndrome and her platelet count was found to be 11,000 per cubic millimeter (cmm).

The count increased to 15,000 cmm on Tuesday morning, said Aysha quoting information from Popular and Square hospitals.

She said Nigar suffered cardiac arrest twice at Popular Hospital. She was shifted to Square Hospitals on Tuesday morning. She suffered a third cardiac arrest before dying yesterday.

A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microlitre of blood.

According to DGHS statistics, 193 people were infected with dengue fever in May and 1,671 more in June. The figures for the corresponding months last year were 52 and 295.

Experts say climate change effects, intermittent rain, changing pattern of weather and lack of cleanliness are the main reasons for this increase in dengue cases in the country.