<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever since the start of the year, official figures showed, in the country\u2019s worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.<\/p>\n
Dengue is a disease endemic to tropical areas that causes high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and, in the most serious cases, bleeding that can lead to death.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization has warned that dengue \u2014 and other diseases caused by mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika \u2014 are spreading faster and further<\/a> due to climate change.<\/p>\n Figures from the country\u2019s Directorate General of Health Services published on Sunday night said 1,006 people had died, among more than 200,000 confirmed cases.<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s former director Be-Nazir Ahmed told AFP<\/em> Monday that the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a massive health event, both in Bangladesh and in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Among the dead are 112 children aged 15 and under, including infants, according to the official data.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s figures dwarf the previous highest total from 2022 when 281 deaths were recorded.<\/p>\n Scientists have attributed this year\u2019s outbreak to irregular rainfall and hotter temperatures during the annual monsoon season that have created ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.<\/p>\n Bangladesh has recorded cases of dengue from the 1960s but documented its first outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever, a severe and sometimes fatal symptom of the disease, in 2000.<\/p>\n The virus that causes the disease is now endemic to Bangladesh, which has seen a trend<\/a> of worsening outbreaks since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n Most cases are recorded during the July to September monsoon season, the months which bring the vast majority of the country\u2019s annual rainfall, along with occasional floods and landslides.<\/p>\n But Bangladeshi hospitals have also begun to admit patients suffering from the disease during winter months in recent years.<\/p>\n Dengue wards in Dhaka\u2019s major hospitals are currently filled with patients being treated beneath mosquito nets under the watchful and worried eyes of family members.<\/p>\n World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in September that the outbreak was \u201cputting huge pressure on the health system\u201d in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s alert and response director Abdi Mahamud said the same month that such outbreaks were a \u201ccanary in the coal mine of the climate crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n\u2018Canary in the coal mine\u2019<\/h2>\n