For the World Health Organization the increase in cases would be “partly due to the climate crisis”
A total of 69,483 cases of Dengue, confirmed in the laboratory, and 327 related deaths in just over 6 months – from January 1 to August 7 – in Bangladesh. This is the epidemic reported by the World Health Organization in a report published today. Already in recent days the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had expressed via Twitter, “concern about an increase in dengue cases throughout Southeast Asia, especially in Bangladesh, partly due to the climate crisis“.
The WHO alert explains that 63% of cases and 62% of deaths were reported in July. Although dengue is endemic in Bangladesh, the UN health agency points out, “the current wave is unusual in terms of seasonality”. Even the lethality rate (estimated at 0.47% this year)”is relatively high compared to previous years“. The pre-monsoon survey on Aedes, WHO continues, “shows that the density of mosquitoes and the number of potential hotspots” for these insects, is “at the highest level in the last 5 years”.
The increased incidence of dengue occurs, the analysis continues, “in the context of an unusual episodic amount of rainfall, combined with high temperatures and high humidity, which have led to an increase in the mosquito population across Bangladesh.” WHO teams, explained DG Tedros, are now “helping the Bangladesh government with diagnostic kits, training on clinical care, community involvement and surveillance”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com