Dengue cases on rise, but swine flu situation eases

The overall swine flu situation in Dhaka city improved during the Eid vacation but the number of patients with dengue fever increased, said the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research on Wednesday.
‘Generally, we can say the overall swine flu situation is better in the city. We can confirm the real picture after analysing the information we are receiving from different parts of the country,’ Mahmudur Rahman, the director of IEDCR told New Age.
He said that IEDCR was receiving samples from the surveillance centres and hospitals and continued to test them.
Regarding dengue fever, he said as this is the dengue season the number of dengue patients have increased. ‘We cannot provide the figure of the dengue patients but their number is increasing because of monsoon. The mosquito (Aedes) spawns in the fresh rain water,’ he said.
There was no swine flu patient in the flu ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday, said Quizi Tarikul Islam, physician in charge of the flu ward at DMCH.
‘There was no new swine flu patient admitted to the flu ward in last one week. The admitted patients were also discharged after they recovered,’ he said.
At DMCH they received 250 patients daily on an average in the flu ward for check up. ‘But we received only four to six patients in the last three or four days,’ Tarikul said.
He said, ‘The trend of swine flu has declined 90 percent after reaching the peak. After analysing the natural characteristics of the virus, we will be able to say that the situation is better.’
He said around 2,250 patients visited the flu ward at DMCH so far, of whom only 28 patients had been admitted to the hospital.
‘We prescribed 10 percent patients for taking medicine of swine flu and suggested them to stay home,’ he said.
Tarikul said that people were panicky in the initial stage, but now they were much aware about the swine flu.
Government experts however estimated that at least 50,000 people were infected with swine flu virus in Dhaka city and most of them got cured without taking medication.
IEDCR confirmed death of three patients who were infected with swine flu virus. Another person reportedly died of swine flu but there was no laboratory confirmation of the case.

Courtesy of NewAgebd