Bangladesh minister says mosquito numbers rising ‘like Rohingya population’
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Published: 25 Jul 2019
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has compared the breeding capacity of Aedes mosquito with the rise in Rohingya refugee population to describe the magnitude of the dengue outbreak.
The “simple” reason behind the rise in the mosquito-borne fever, fatal in some cases, is the rise of Aedes, according to the minister.
“These are very healthy and sophisticated mosquitos. They live in the cities, homes. That’s the simple answer,” he told a seminar on dengue at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday.
“Somehow we could not manage to control the mosquito population which is rising like the Rohingya population in our country. There would have been fewer dengue cases had the Aedes production been controlled,” the minister said.
He hailed the doctors of Bangladesh for keeping the rate of fatal cases below the ones in developed nations in the region.
“Only eight people have died so far while the death toll is hundreds in other countries,” he claimed, though a bdnews24.com investigation put the toll at 19 until July 17.
The city corporations were the authorities to control Aedes mosquito while the health ministry was helping the corporations, he said.
Director General for Health Services Abul Kalam Azad hoped the number of dengue patients will drop along with the mosquito population.
The Directorate General of Health Services recorded 5, 637 cases in July only, highest for a month. Before this, the highest number in a month was last year in September – 3,087.