Cold-related illness sees rise in North
Cold-related diseases are spreading in different northern districts due to the ongoing gloomy and foggy weather.
Children and the elderly are the worst sufferers, said health workers.
Besides, vehicular movement and ferry operations on different routes remained suspended for several hours yesterday in different areas due to dense fog.
Yesterday's Met Office bulletin said, "Moderate to thick fog may occur over the river basins of the country."
"Light to moderate fog may occur elsewhere over the country from midnight to morning," it added.
"Night and day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country."
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours was released at 9:00am yesterday.
Yesterday's lowest temperature was recorded at 9.6 degrees Celsius in Tentulia of Panchagarh.
In Thakurgaon, the number of patients with cold-related diseases is increasing in different hospitals.
"My child has been suffering from pneumonia. That is why I have been staying in the hospital with my child for several days," said Jarina Khatun while talking to The Daily Star at Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital yesterday.
Most of the 145 children, who are being treated at the hospital, are infected with different cold-related diseases. Another 193 adult patients are at other wards of the hospital. Most of them are suffering from cold-related diseases, said Resident Medical Officer Rakibul Alam Chayan.
In Nilphamari, as the cold spell continues, cold-related diseases affected people, particularly children and the elderly.
At the children ward of the 250-bed Nilphamari General Hospital, there were 24 patients against its 12-bed capacity who are suffering from acute pneumonia, diarrhoea, fever, cough, etc.
Hospital staffers are struggling to manage space for the patients and their attendants.
The elderly, suffering from asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory problems, are the worst victims of cold wave.
Sale of inhalers and nebulisers for treating those patients have gone up, said drugstore owners.
Asthma patient Rehana Begum, 60, of Sabuj para in Nilphamari municipality, said as her condition deteriorated, her family had to manage oxygen for removing her breathing difficulties.
On the Shimulia-Banglabazar route, ferry service was suspended for around five hours from 3:00am yesterday due to thick fog.
Over 600 vehicles had to wait to cross the Padma river on both the sides, causing passengers and transport workers to suffer immensely.
"I reached the Shimulia ghat around 6:00am. I had to wait for over two hours to board a ferry to cross the river," said Zakaria Hossain, a Shariatpur-bound passenger.
On the Paturia-Daulatdia route, the ferry service was halted for around nine hours from around 2:30am due to poor visibility in the river.
The service resumed around 11:00am yesterday when the fog started disappearing.
Several hundred vehicles got stuck at both the ends of the river.
In Tangail, passengers and transport workers faced immense hardships as traffic operation was suspended on the Bangabandhu bridge on multiple times from Thursday night to yesterday morning due to poor visibility.
This resulted in long tailbacks on both the sides of the bridge.
[Our correspondents from Thakurgaon, Nilphamari, Manikganj and Tangail contributed to this report.]
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