Bangladesh launches nationwide campaign to curb dengue
Three-month drive will mobilize local authorities, students and volunteers across country to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds and raise public awareness
DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — Bangladesh is launching a three-month nationwide campaign against dengue, mobilizing students, volunteers and local authorities for weekly door-to-door operations as a rapidly worsening outbreak puts growing pressure on the country’s health system.
Rather than relying primarily on insecticide spraying, the campaign will attempt to attack the mosquito-borne disease at its source by sending teams into communities to identify and remove stagnant water and other breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes.
The intervention comes as Bangladesh enters what authorities consider a particularly dangerous period for dengue. At least 42,590 people had been hospitalized with the disease and 117 had died this year through Sept. 6, according to the government’s Directorate General of Health Services.
The outbreak has accelerated sharply in recent weeks. Bangladesh recorded 1,558 new hospital admissions and four deaths in the 24 hours to Sept. 6 — its highest daily caseload of the year — while health experts have warned that September alone could see more than 30,000 hospitalizations if current trends continue.
Under the three-month campaign beginning Sept. 12, teams of volunteers and students will fan out across cities, towns and rural communities every Saturday, visiting homes and other properties to clean surrounding areas, locate potential mosquito breeding sites and explain preventive measures to residents.
The effort is designed as a countrywide operation reaching multiple layers of local government. City corporations will coordinate work in metropolitan areas, district administrations will oversee operations outside major cities, and subdistrict authorities will organize activities further into local communities.
Bangladesh is drawing personnel from beyond its health services to expand the campaign’s reach. Scouts, the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps, Girl Guides and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society will participate alongside school and college students and government disaster-management volunteers.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who is scheduled to formally launch the campaign Saturday, said after a government meeting Tuesday that the next three months should be considered a high-risk period and that mosquito-control operations alone would not be sufficient to contain transmission.
Authorities are also seeking to strengthen the medical response as infections rise.
Officials have discussed expanding dengue treatment and patient-management capacity at hospitals outside major cities and supplying mosquito nets to hospitalized dengue patients to prevent mosquitoes from biting infected patients and potentially transmitting the virus to others.
The government will simultaneously run a nationwide information campaign through television and social media, urging people to routinely remove standing water, dispose of waste and inspect homes, schools and workplaces for potential breeding sites.
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