Medical workers check on dengue patients at a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 24, 2019. (Str/Xinhua)

 
Dengue cases in Bangladesh has surged to around 25,000 nationwide with 18 deaths so far this year, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on Sunday.

On Aug. 1-4, according to the figure reported by the DGHS under the Ministry of Health, 6,967 more dengue cases were recorded after more than 15,359 people were infected with the mosquito-borne disease in the last month, which were more than the total number of patients in any past year.

According to the DGHS, the number of patients was 10,148 in the last year including 946 cases in July 2018 and 26 of them died.

At least 75 people reportedly died of dengue this year till Sunday in the country. But the DGHS puts the figure at 18.

"As of Aug. 4, 2019, a total of 24,804 cases of Dengue virus disease, including 18 deaths, have been reported in the country since Jan. 1," Ayesha Akhter, assistant director at the DGHS, told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, she said a total of 1,870 fresh dengue cases were reported in the 24 hours till 8:00 a.m. local time Sunday, the highest number in a single day.

Mirjadi Mehjabin, director of the government's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said earlier that dengue virus is unlikely to abate soon as the Aedes mosquito, which is the carrier of the virus, continues to breed till September.

She underscored the importance of detecting and destroying properly breeding grounds of the mosquito to rein in the fast outbreak of the disease.

DGHS officials urged the authorities concerned to take prompt measures to destroy the mosquito breeding grounds to prevent the disease from turning into an epidemic.

Many government agencies including the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) launched cleanliness campaigns in the capital city to control the dengue outbreak.

According to a DMP statement, all offices of deputy commissioners of police, police stations, police camps, control rooms, messes and dining places for the policemen under the DMP were cleaned during a campaign Saturday as several policemen and their family members have also been victim of the dengue fever.

At a hospital on Sunday in Dhaka, a senior police official's spouse reportedly died of dengue fever.

By region, according to officials, Dhaka and its neighboring districts are still more vulnerable to the risk of mosquito-borne diseases.

Most Dhaka hospitals and clinics are crammed with dengue patients.

On Sunday Dhaka's one of the largest public hospitals - Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital - was seen flooded by hundreds of patients suffering from dengue fever which 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.