Govt can’t avoid responsibility for crisis of effective mosquito repellent: HC

Govt can’t avoid responsibility for crisis of effective mosquito repellent: HC

The High Court today observed that the government along with the Dhaka City Corporations cannot avoid the responsibility for not purchasing effective medicine to kill the Aedes mosquito that causes dengue fever among people.

The High Court bench of Justice Tariqul Hakim and Md Suhrwardy made the observation while hearing a suo moto rule issued in this regard.

The court fixed Wednesday for passing an order on whether a judicial commission will be constituted to enquire the incident of deaths due to dengue and chikunguniya, anbother mosquito-borne disease.

Earlier in the day, the LGRD ministry submitted a report to the High Court saying that the government is working to formulate a long-term plan to prevent dengue and chikunguniya in future.

A record 63,514 dengue infected people went to hospitals this year, according to the DGHS.

The number is five times that of last year. The total number of infected people are likely to be even higher, because many cases go unreported.

At least 5,940 people are currently admitted to different hospitals across the country.

In 24 hours since 8:00am on Saturday, at least 1,299 new patients -- 607 in Dhaka and the rest outside -- had been admitted to different hospitals, according to the DGHS.