Official data from the Bangladeshi government shows that more than a thousand people in the country have died as a result of a dengue outbreak. The phenomenon would be heightened by the increase in temperatures in the country resulting from the climate crisis the planet is going through, which saw records for maximum temperatures in one day and in some months of the year break.
In the case of Bangladesh, since the beginning of the year, 1,017 people have died from the disease, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, including more than 100 children. In the country, more than 208 thousand were infected, according to data from the General Directorate of Health Services of Bangladesh released last Monday (2).
According to CNN, although the disease is endemic in the country, located in South Asia, with infections typically concentrated during the monsoon season, between July and September, this year the increase in cases began even earlier, at the end of the month of April.
The numbers are the result of a prolonged monsoon season, resulting in a combination of higher temperatures and heavy, irregular rainfall, which created ideal conditions for mosquito breeding. As a result, the increase in the number of patients overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system, according to local press, and hospitals faced a lack of beds and staff to care for the sick.
The deaths represent almost four times the number of victims from last year, when 281 people died. In September this year, more than 79,600 cases were reported, with 396 deaths, according to Bangladesh health authorities. There is also growing concern about the possibility of the outbreak spreading through the colder months of the year as well.
June 2023 surpassed the average temperatures recorded until then. July reached the mark of the hottest month recorded in history. August just didn’t surpass the previous month. But September broke all records. Faced with these successive record breaks, scientists see that 2023 will probably be the hottest year in history, which is currently just 0.01ºC behind 2016 in average temperature, with just four months left until the end of the year.
Average global temperatures during the first three months of summer in the Northern Hemisphere (from June to August) were the highest recorded, with an average of 16.77°C, 0.66°C above average. During this period, record high sea surface temperature anomalies were also observed in the global ocean.
