‘High BI in many city areas conducive to dengue spread’

Dhaka – Mentioning that the BI (Breteau Index) is higher than 20 in different areas of the city which is conducive to dengue spread, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has stressed destroying the breeding grounds of Aedes mosquito to tackle the dengue situation.

“As per the latest mosquito survey, the BI (number of positive containers per 100 houses) is higher than 20 in different areas of the city which is favorable for dengue spread. As people move from one place to another, those living in the areas with less BI might get infected with dengue,” said an official release on Sunday.

The release was issued after a regular meeting of the DGHS on dengue menace with its Director-General Prof Dr Abul Kalam Azad in the chair.

DGHS also urged people not to go for the NS-1 test without doctors’ advice as the wholesale test is being carried out in different hospitals and clinics across the country, creating a crisis of testing kits.

It will be possible to produce 35,000 dengue rapid testing kits locally soon as the raw materials for producing the kits will start entering the country on Tuesday, the release said.

Importers have brought 368,200 kits between July 31 and August 3. Of those, 157,000 Non-structural Protein 1 (NS-1) and Combo kits were imported on August 3, it said, adding that necessary steps have been taken to allow importers to bring more kits.

DGHS will train medicine consultants, paediatric consultants and doctors at district and Sadar hospitals and 13 government medical colleges as per the national guideline of dengue management.

It will also impart training to resident doctors, medicine consultants and paediatric consultants of the rest 51 Sadar hospitals and Upazila health complexes on dengue management through videoconferencing on August 7 and 8.

Prof Dor Sania Tahmina, director, disease control unit; Dr Samir Kanti, director (MIS); Md Ruhul Amin, director (DGDA); officials of DGHS and Dr MM Akhteruzzaman, deputy programme manager of national malaria control and Aedes-carrying diseases control programme, were present at the meeting.

This year, the dengue outbreak has been severe with hundreds of people being infected every day. Most of the cases are being reported from Dhaka. A total of 1,870 new patients were hospitalised with dengue fever in 24 hours till Sunday morning.UNB