Govt focus now on hospitals outside Dhaka
Takes measures to deal with outbreak during Eid holiday
The government has taken a number of initiatives to ensure medical services for dengue patients. The measures include setting up helpdesks in all government and private hospitals and logistical support to all district and upazila hospitals.
All community clinics across the country have been directed to be operational during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha vacation, with adequate round-the-clock logistical support.
Keeping in mind the rush of homegoers ahead of Eid, health officials have begun training district and upazila doctors on dengue treatment and patient management through video conferences.
“Many people will go outside Dhaka ahead of Eid and the situation might worsen during that time. Not a single patient in the countryside will remain without treatment,” Abul Kalam Azad, director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told The Daily Star yesterday.
He added that special instructions were given to prioritise dengue patients in hospitals.
The DGHS has already asked government and private hospitals to open up help desks to provide service during Eid vacation.
The number of dengue patients outside Dhaka is increasing every day and it would worsen further when so many people will rush towards their respective districts around the country for the holidays, health officials have recently said.
According to DGHS, at least 2,348 patients -- 1,278 in Dhaka city and 1,064 in other divisions -- were diagnosed with dengue in 24 hours since Monday 8:00am.
With that, the number of cases jumped to 29,912, a record in Bangladesh, with 23 deaths.
However, the unofficial number of deaths to dengue is higher.
The number of patients diagnosed with dengue in one day, outside of Dhaka, yesterday crossed a thousand for the first time.
On July 30, a total of 536 patients had been admitted to hospitals outside Dhaka with dengue fever.
Yesterday, the number of admitted patients was 1,064.
The increase in number of patients outside of Dhaka was higher than in the capital.
NO KIT CRISIS
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) said there was no more a crisis of dengue-detection kits in the country, as various steps were taken to solve it.
According to the DGDA, 4,43,700 dengue-test kits were imported till yesterday.
Ruhul Amin, director of DGDA, said around 1.5 lakh kits will be imported every day in the country.
A hotline number -- 01708506047 -- was also launched to learn about the updates regarding the kits.
Anyone can be updated on the storage of kit. They can also know the names of the kit importers and their contact numbers.
The government has already exempted import duty, VAT, advance tax and advance income tax from the dengue-detection kits. The exemption is applicable for the kits, dengue reagents, and platelet and plasma kits.
Sadar hospitals were given Tk 10 lakh and upazila hospitals Tk 2 lakh to buy dengue-detection kits and all necessary medicines, the DGHS DG said.