Bangladesh dengue deaths cross 1,000-mark in worst outbreak on record

More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this year, the country's worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, which is increasing in frequency due to climate change.

Dengue is a disease endemic to tropical areas and causes high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and, in the most serious cases, bleeding that can lead to death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that dengue -- and other diseases caused by mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika -are spreading faster and further due to climate change.

Figures from Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services published on Sunday night said 1,006 people had died, among more than 200,000 confirmed cases.

The agency's former director Be-Nazir Ahmed said the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000.

The new figures dwarf the previous highest total from 2022, when 281 deaths were recorded for the full year.

Among the dead are 112 children aged 15 and under, including infants.

Scientists have attributed this year's outbreak to irregular rainfall and hotter temperatures during the annual monsoon season that have created ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

The Aedes mosquito that carries dengue thrives at "an optimum temperature for the multiplication of the virus", he added. "Global climate change is playing a role in providing this temperature level."

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.