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Amid media reports on short supply of kits to detect dengue, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Thursday said there will be no crisis of such kits in the country.
“A total of 50,000 kits have been brought for nonstructural protein-1 (NS1) antigen test and 65,000 more will arrive soon. The Directorate General of Drug Administration has already approved the procurement of 0.5 million dengue detection kits. So, there’ll be no crisis,” he said, reports UNB.
The minister was talking to reporters after an inter-ministerial at the Secretariat.
He said all the civil surgeons across the country have been on high alert to tackle the dengue situation.
A 29-member team of doctors will visit every district to provide training to physicians on how to deal with the dengue cases, Zahid Maleque said.
He said they were working to destroy the sources of Aedes mosquito, the carrier of dengue virus. “There’ll be a fall in the number of dengue patients if we can destroy the sources. We’re working together to this end.”
The minister said a 100-bed unit was opened at Mitford Hospital here on Thursday for dengue patients and the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery will be used for dengue treatment, if necessary.
He parried the question when asked about his foreign trip at a time when the country is struggling to tackle the dengue situation.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam and Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon were present at the meeting.
Sayeed Khokon said DSCC is expected to be free from the dengue menace in the first week of September. “The dengue situation is getting complicated as the number of infected people is on the rise. Now, there has been a situation to be worried about. Still, there’s a light of hope,” he said.
“DSCC has managed to free its 11 wards from dengue and we hope it’ll be fully free from dengue within the first week of September,” Sayeed Khokon added.
DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said underscored the need for working round the year to prevent dengue outbreak.
A total of 1,712 more dengue cases were recorded in the last 24 hours till 8am on Thursday. Of them, 1150 were detected in the capital alone, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.