The number of hospitalised dengue patients reached an all-time high in Bangladesh as the country’s health authorities reported 2,197 cases and nine more deaths in the 24 hours ending 8:00am on Monday.

The latest cases took the number of hospitalised dengue patients to 102191, the highest since official counting began, surpassing the 101,354 cases reported in 2019.

With the latest number of fatalities, the dengue-related death toll reached 485, already a new record in a single year overtaking the previous highest death tally of 281 recorded in 2022.

Entomologists feared that the number of annual caseloads and deaths would climb further as more than four months of the calendar year were still to go.

The caseload and deaths are believed to be much higher than government figures show, as many people are still outside the surveillance network of the authorities.

‘Dengue cases will increase more as the authorities have yet to adopt any pragmatic mosquito control mechanism,’ said Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury, an entomologist and a former president of the Zoological Society of Bangladesh.

Nearly half of the total dengue cases, 50,359, were reported in August. This is the second-highest number of hospitalisations in Bangladesh in a single month, just behind 52,636 dengue hospitalisations in August 2019.

The number of hospitalisations with dengue was 566 in January this year, 166 in February, 111 in March, 143 in April, 1,036 in May, 5,956 in June, and 43,854 in July, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

This August has also turned out to be the deadliest month for dengue patients, with 234 deaths reported in the first 21 days. The previous highest number of deaths in a single month was reported in July when 204 people died of the mosquito-borne viral disease.

The number of dengue deaths was 6 in January, 3 in February, 2 in April, 2 in May, and 34 in June, while no deaths were reported in March, according to DGHS data.

The dengue outbreak was first officially reported in the country in 2000, when 5,551 people were hospitalised and 93 died, according to DGHS data.

Dengue hospitalisation had been reported at 28,429 and 62,382, respectively, in 2021 and 2022, when dengue deaths were recorded at 105 and 281, respectively.

On Monday, at least 7,686 patients were undergoing treatment at different hospitals across the country, including 3,607 in the capital.

Out of the total hospitalisations, 48.27 per cent were from the capital, and the rest were from different districts.

Due to the rise of dengue patients, hospitals are struggling to ensure services, leaving patients to suffer.