THE proposition that 78 per cent of the dengue patients recorded as residents of Dhaka鈥檚 south city areas in hospital documents are from outside Dhaka is worrying on a couple of counts. This brings to the fore the weakness of the reporting mechanism put in place in hospitals. This also stands to frustrate any plan to fight against the disease. Above all else, the situation is reflective of poor dengue treatment facilities in areas outlying 12 city corporations. The Directorate General of Health Services says that 2,833 people living in areas under the south city authorities were treated for dengue infection in hospital in the first 20 days of November. But an investigation that the city authorities have conducted finds that only 594 patients of the total, accounting roughly for 22 per cent, are residents of areas under the south city authorities. Dengue infection this year has so far left 448 people dead and sent 85,712 patients to hospital to seek dengue treatment. The chief health officer of the south city authorities says that the agency has for years been opposed to the Directorate General of Health Services data, noting that patients were wrongly identified as residents of the south city areas, but the health officials were not ready to heed the objection.
Experts say that such misreporting is typical of not only Dhaka鈥檚 south city areas but also Dhaka鈥檚 north city and other city corporation areas. A case in example is the death of a 40-year-old patient in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University under Dhaka鈥檚 south city areas on November 18, but the city authorities have found that the patient was from Barguna and referred to Dhaka for treatment by the Betagi upazila health complex. Whilst dengue cases have thus been over-reported in city areas, they are under-reported in outlying areas, holding back proper mitigation planning when experts believe that the fight against Aedes mosquitoes, the vector of dengue infection, should be stepped up in areas where the vector is concentrated. But such misreporting of patient鈥檚 address makes it difficult for health managers to know where the problem lies the most. Getting to know the places of concentration from proper hospital records is crucial as it is only then health managers could step up drives against Aedes mosquitoes in places with worrying concentration. On the other front, about four-fifths of dengue patients treated in south city hospitals having been from outlying areas suggests poor dengue treatment facilities outside cities. The situation warrants an urgent attention of health managers to dengue treatment inadequacies across the country.
The government should, in such a situation, first purge the reporting mechanism of any flaws to ensure data accuracy for an effective planning for dengue mitigation. The government should, then, work out its plans for fight against dengue based on accurate data that come up in the process. And, lastly, the government should better dengue treatment facilities in areas outlying cities for a coordinated approach.
