Govt working to procure dengue vaccine: DGHS

Amid the widespread outbreak of dengue across the country, the government has undertaken a step of procuring vaccine to control the menace of the mosquito-borne disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on October 2 recommended a vaccine for dengue and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is now trying to procure it to help minimise the severities and fatalities caused by the dengue, a source at the DGHS said on Tuesday.

WHO recommended the use of a new dengue fever vaccine developed by Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

The vaccine, named Qdenga, has already been approved for use in the European Union and endemic countries such as Indonesia and Brazil, reports Japanese news agency Jiji Press.

During a briefing in Geneva, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO recommends that the Qdenga vaccine be introduced to children aged between 6 and 16 years who are now living in areas with high dengue disease burden and high transmission intensity.

Dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes and found mainly in tropical and subtropical regions, is feared to spread in African, Asian and Latin American countries, according to the WHO.

Bangladesh witnesses, a total of 1,017 deaths, the highest in a year since dengue was detected in 2000, were reported from dengue disease while 281 died last year.

On September 20, Bangladesh witnessed 21 dengue deaths, the highest in a single day this year and it also saw the same highest figure on September 2.

The death toll from dengue infection crossed the 1000-mark as the authorities recorded 1,017 dengue deaths between January 1 and October 2 this year.

The total number of patients rose to 2,088,84 and some 1,98,584 patients were released from different hospitals out of the total patients.

The authorities have recorded the highest number of dengue positive cases outside the capital in August this year, meaning the mosquito-borne disease gripped the entire country.