High Court scolds government, mayors for failure

The High Court Division on Sunday scolded the government and the capital’s two mayors for letting dengue spreading across the country in an alarming way.

In 24 hours until Sunday morning, at least 1,706 new dengue patients were hospitalized across the country, 734 of them in the capital, a 17 per cent increase compared to the previous day, according to Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room.

On Sunday two more people died of the viral fever in Jamalpur and Mymensingh raising the number to 109 according to unofficial statistics. The government data, however, shows 40 dengue patients have died since January.

Brishti, 25, died of dengue on Sunday at her Dewanganj house, Jamalpur civil surgeon Goutam Roy said.

Russell Miah, 35, died while taking treatment for dengue at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, the hospital’s deputy director Lakkhi Narayan Majumder told New Age.

Russell was from Kishorganj.

On Saturday, at least 1,460 dengue patients were hospitalised across the country, show control room data.

A bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader also rejected the report submitted the health ministry spelling out its dengue treatment programmes.

‘We did not want it,’ said the bench.

The dengue could not get ‘so alarming’, if the government and the mayors had taken timely steps, said the court.

The court called it ‘ridiculous’ for the government dump garbage on clean places and then sweeping the areas for show.

The court also called it ridiculous to spray insecticides on human beings instead of spraying larvicide on clean stagnant water where aedes mosquito breeds.

The bench also pulled up the government for spraying ineffective pesticides year after year without examining their efficacy.

The court said that the supervising officials did not carry out their obligatory duties and they also lacked in skills and patriotic mentality.

Moreover, the government and the city corporations were blaming each other for the situation, said the court.

The court also scolded the government for providing misleading figures of deaths caused by dengue.

The court said that the nation became thoroughly confused when government says 48 dengue patients died until now but according to unofficial estimates at least 72 dengue patients died.

The court said that a dengue patient came from Shariatpur to die in the capital though he came to get better treatment.

The court said that if he stayed back in his village possibly he would survive.

According to the Health Services control room, on August 72,428 patients were hospitalized, the highest ever for a single day.

On Wednesday, 1,882 dengue patients were hospitalized and on Thursday 1,933 patients were hospitalized.

On Monday, the day of Eid 1,201 dengue patients were hospitalized.

The number of hospitalization of dengue fell during the Eid vacation as many of them preferred to stay at home.

But the number of dengue patients swelled after Eid, doctors told new Age on Sunday.

Intermittent rains together with excessive humid weather conditions facilitated aedes mosquito breeding, they said.

The government even took no steps to keep its establishments neat and tidy so that rain waters could not remain stagnant to facilitate aedes mosquito breeding.

The intermittent countrywide rains since Tuesday also facilitated aedes mosquito breeding as the authorities took no steps to prevent the waters getting stagnant particularly in the cities, said experts.

The dengue outbreak became alarming since early July.

On Saturday, Dr Sanya Tahmina, Health Services director for disease control, warned about the possibility of dengue spreading fast in the next week. 

She called the weather conditions together with thousands of people returning to the capital after celebrating Eid in the countryside as ‘very favourable’ for dengue to spread again.

A total of 53,182 people got infected with the dengue virus so far this year, according to the control room.

And 34,721 dengue patients were hospitalised in the first 18 days of the current month.

Dengue became a source of public health concern since early July apparently due to the government not paying due attention to control the outbreak, said health experts.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net