Woman dies of dengue in Barishal

A dengue patient died at the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) in Barishal this morning.

Shadhona Rani, 45, a resident of Betagi upazila, was admitted to SBMCH last night.

“She died around 6:30am,” said Dr Bakir Hossain, director of the hospital.

Bangladesh, like some other Southeast Asian countries, has been hit by a massive outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever this year. The large number of cases overwhelmed the country’s medical system.

But the situation has been improving gradually in recent weeks with relatively fewer new cases and deaths being reported every day.

Between January 1 and Saturday, 87,263 people were hospitalised with dengue, most of them in Dhaka. Of them, 85,323 had made full recovery.

At present, 1,709 patients are being treated at hospitals – 629 of them in the capital.

The government has received reports of 231 dengue-related deaths since January. It has reviewed 136 cases so far and confirmed 81 dengue-related deaths.