Dengue outbreak has spread to more than 50 districts by Monday although the health directorate had earlier warned the state agencies concerned of possible outbreak of the deadly viral fever, officials said.
According to the sources, the state-run Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) conducted a survey across Dhaka in January this year and found instances of not only Aedes mosquito larvae but also adult Aedes mosquitoes in many places.
Prof Dr Sania Tahmina, director of Disease Control Unit of the DGHS, made the disclosure at a press conference at the directorate on Monday.
"We warned the city corporations and agencies concerned on March, 2019 of the possible dengue outbreak," she said citing the initial dengue survey.
Based on the fear, she said, they updated the dengue guideline and sent necessary kits to district hospitals across the country.
According to the DGHS's health emergency operations centre and control room, some 1,096 people infected with the dengue virus were hospitalised in the last 24 hours till 8:00am on Monday.
With the fresh numbers, the overall figure of hospitalised dengue patients rose to 13,637 in 51 districts.
Regarding the early warning, responses of the chief health officers of both Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) could not be availed even after repeated phone calls.
Seeking anonymity, a DSCC officer said the city corporation had received the warning and instructed the mosquito eliminating teams to spray insecticides in the city.
"But, who knows the situation will turn to that level," he added.
Though the health directorate fixed maximum fee to diagnose dengue at Tk 500, this was not followed by several hospitals and clinics as found by the FE correspondent while visiting those on Monday.
Holy Family Medical College and Hospital was found to charge Tk 1,200, Tk 1,000 and Tk 500 for NS1 Antigen, IgM and CBC tests respectively.
When contacted, the hospital's deputy director (medical) Dr Swapan Kumar Barman said they did not receive any instruction about fee for diagnosis of dengue from the health directorate.
"We normally receive government order through email but we have not got any such email yet. If the government took such a decision, we will follow it," he added.
Padma General Hospital in Malibagh was charging Tk 1,280 for NSI antigen test, which is Tk 780 higher than the government-declared charge while Medinova in the same area was taking Tk 1,500 for the same.
For NSI antigen test, Baraka Hospital in Shajahanpur, Pan Pacific Hospital in the same area, and Islami Bank Central Hospital in Kakrail were found to charge Tk 1,000, Tk 1,520 and Tk 1,020 respectively.
Meanwhile, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam on Monday sought media cooperation in building anti-Aedes awareness in society while discussing with the editors of various national dailies and online news portals.
In the view-exchange meeting, the participating editors suggested both the city corporation's mayors to take a long-term work plan to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease.
They also recommended strict monitoring of dengue-prevention activities in a coordinated way to overcome the dangerous menace.
In a press release sent to the media houses on Monday, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), the state-owned drug administration, have instructed the pharmaceutical companies to keep supply of necessary medicines and diagnosis kits for treating dengue patients available at fair price.
The directorate will strictly monitor the medicine market to avert any supply-demand mismatch during the crisis, it mentioned.
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