DHAKA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 5,050 fresh cases of dengue were reported from Bangladesh capital Dhaka and elsewhere on the outskirts of the city so far this month, bringing the total number of confirmed cases till July 23 in the country to 7,179.
The figures reported by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the Ministry of Health gives an alarming situation as Dhaka has seen a rapid surge in the incidence of the mosquito-borne viral infection.
A total of 1,090 cases of dengue were reported in the last 48 hours till Tuesday 8:00 a.m. (local time), an IEDCR official told Xinhua.
Medical institutions in Dhaka have been reporting increasing numbers of new cases.
By region, according to the IEDCR official, Dhaka and its neighboring districts are more vulnerable to the risk of mosquito-borne diseases and most Dhaka hospitals and clinics are now crammed with dengue patients.
"At least four people have already become victim this year," the IEDCR official who preferred to be unnamed said.
At the latest, a doctor has died of dengue. Mohammad Shahadat Hossain Hajra, a government physician, was declared dead at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka on Sunday night.
Two weeks earlier a lady doctor also died of dengue fever in Dhaka. She was reportedly the third patient to have died of the disease in the country since January.
Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes.
The first case of mosquito-borne viral infection was reported in Bangladesh in 2000, and some 100 people died from the disease in 2000-2003.
