Dhaka South City Corporation officials have said that many dengue patients taking treatment from hospitals situated in areas under its jurisdiction actually came from outside Dhaka.
Their remarks came as an issue has recently arisen over the locating of the spots from where the dengue virus is spreading.
The Directorate General of Health Services reported that some 2,833 people living in areas under the Dhaka South City Corporation were hospitalised with dengue fever in the first 20 days of November.
The south city authorities, meanwhile, after a thorough investigation into the cases found that only 594 out of the 2,833 patients, roughly 22 per cent, were from different areas under its jurisdiction.
The city corporation reported that some 78 per cent of the patients actually came from different villages across the country to the hospitals situated in areas under the city corporation.
DSCC chief health officer Fazle Shamsul Kabir said that for years they had been raising their objection, pointing out that patients were wrongly identified as residents of south city areas, but the health directorate did not pay heed.
Not only was the Dhaka south city authorities, the same wrong reporting allegedly happened to the Dhaka North City Corporation and other city corporations as well.
Experts and others concerned observe that while dengue cases are over reported in the 12 city corporations, they remained under reported in districts.
Professor Md Golam Sharower, head of entomology department at the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, also a member of the government expert committee formed to fight dengue, said that knowing actual details were crucial for dengue management.
鈥榃e are asking the DGHS to collect the information of the actual spots where the dengue patients received the mosquito bites,鈥� he said, adding that 鈥榠f we have that information the agencies can conduct drive there to kill the mosquitos potentially carrying and spreading the virus.鈥�
On November 18, the health directorate reported that a woman, 40, died of dengue at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University located in the DSCC jurisdiction.
On contacting her relatives, Dhaka south city officials found that she came with dengue from her home in Barguna to get admission to the hospital.
The victim鈥檚 sibling Mostafa Kamal said that the patient was first admitted to Betagi Upazila Health Complex from where the physicians referred her to Dhaka.
Entomologists observe that wrong reporting increases the risk of spreading the disease. If the agencies cannot identify the real spots from where dengue is spreading, anti-mosquito drives cannot be conducted there, leading to further spread of the disease.聽
According to health directorate director general professor Md Abu Jafor, they collect the disease information from patients while they take admission to hospitals.
He also said that they were trying to improve the reporting system.聽
The health directorate on Saturday stated that at least 10 people died of dengue and 886 others were hospitalised in the past 24 hours until 8:00am.
Including the latest, so far 448 dengue patients died this year with hospitalisation of 85,712 others since January.
Of them, in the first 23 days of November, 133 people died and 23,895 others hospitalised.
This year, 14 dengue patients died in January, three in February, five in March, two in April, two in May, eight in June, 12 in July, 27 in August, 80 in September and 134 in October.
Of the hospitalisation this year, 1,055 were reported in January, 339 in February, 311 in March, 504 in April, 644 in May, 798 in June, 2,669 in July, 6,521 in August, 18,097 in September and 30, 879 in October.
Dengue killed 1,705 people and sent 3,21,179聽 people to hospital in 2023 alone against 853 deaths and 2,44,246 hospitalisation between 2000 and 2022, the DGHS data show.
A dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000 when 93 people died and 5,551 patients were hospitalised, according to the DGHS data.