Shaheen Mollah

A section of Dhaka dwellers has voluntarily taken measures to kill mosquitoes and prevent them from breeding, aiming to curb further spread of dengue in the capital.

It seems the lessons have not learnt been yet. Six months have passed since the devastating Chawkbazar fire, and Old Dhaka is still sitting on a ticking time bomb as chemical warehouses continue to operate -- mostly in residential buildings -- due to lack of action by the authorities concerned.

Jobayer Islam, who was running a high fever for two days, was taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital on August 14. Doctors there advised that he take an NS1 test, which is done to detect dengue.

Illegal gas connections via plastic pipes helped Friday night’s fire spread faster, razing almost the entire slum at Mirpur’s Chalantika, fire service officials said.

The scenes at Chalantika slum resemble those from a wasteland in a dystopia.

Major terminals in the capital remain ripe for Aedes mosquito breeding as hundreds of thousands of people are arriving in the city after Eid holidays.

For most people of Rony’s age, Eid-ul-Azha is an opportunity to spend some leisurely time with friends and family, and feast on various preparations of beef and mutton. But for the 25-year old resident of Bhashantek slum in Mirpur, it is a day of hard work that

The number of dengue patients in the capital has begun to show an upward trend in the past two days, following a fall during the Eid vacation. According to the Director General of Health Services, 1,929 patients were infected in the last 24 hours across the country till 8:00am

Jannatul Mawa, 5, spent part of her Eid day in the children’s park of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, which has around 80 dengue patients, before returning to her hospital bed.

Some volunteers of Red Crescent are trying to bring a positive change by their participation in assisting the patients at different hospitals of capital Dhaka.

Cattle markets in Dhaka see very few buyers on the night before Eid-ul-Azha even though there are many sacrificial animals left to be sold. Traders who brought sacrificial animals to markets at Bhasantek, Kachukhet and Gabtoli are still waiting to sell them off and others are counting their losses after having to sell the cattle off at low prices.

Emon Hossain, a seventh grader, will be missing out on Eid celebrations with his family in his grandfather’s Shariyatpur house. This year, his festivities will be restricted to the hospital where he has been admitted since being diagnosed with dengue on Wednesday.

As Eid-ul-Azha draws nearer, city dwellers have begun rushing to cattle markets to buy sacrificial animals of their choice.

Sharna Akhtar, 18, who had swallowed poison, was in a critical stage when she was brought to the Mugda General Hospital last week.

Six-year-old Maliha and 11-year-old Raiyan were inseparable. The siblings would play like best friends. Maliha did not know of a world where Raiyan was not there for her.

Raiyan Sarker, 11, lost the battle against dengue at a city hospital on Friday. After burying him at a Tejgaon graveyard, his father Momin Sarker went straight back to the hospital later that night to attend to his daughter, who is suffering from the same disease.

“Do you want to kill my son?” a worried mother yelled at staffers of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in the capital. Her son, Mohammad Ali, 13, from Mohammadpur Geneva Camp, has had a 104-degree fever for the past three days.

When the country is grappling with a record number of dengue cases, different hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres face a short supply of a kit that is needed to detect the fever at the early stage.

Doctors and nurses in hospitals around the city are being overworked and resources are stretching thin due to the ongoing record dengue outbreak.

Last Sunday, when Shahjadi Akter’s five-year-old daughter began running a fever, she rushed the child to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from her Hosni Dalan house. Doctors there diagnosed her with dengue, but could not admit her due to a lack of beds.