Bangladesh dengue deaths top 100, August could be worse

People sleep on three wheeler carts using mosquito nets in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Reuters)
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Updated 11 August 2025
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Bangladesh dengue deaths top 100, August could be worse

  • Dengue has killed 101 people and infected 24,183 so far this year, official data showed, placing a severe strain on the country’s already overstretched health care system
  • Experts say climate change, along with warm, humid weather and intermittent rain, has created ideal breeding conditions for Aedes mosquitoes, the carriers of the dengue virus

DHAKA: Bangladesh is experiencing a surge in dengue cases and deaths, with health experts warning that August could bring an even more severe outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease if urgent action is not taken.
Dengue has killed 101 people and infected 24,183 so far this year, official data showed, placing a severe strain on the country’s already overstretched health care system.
A sharp rise in fatalities has accompanied the spike in cases. Nineteen people have already died of dengue so far in August, following 41 deaths in July — more than double June’s 19 fatalities.
“The situation is critical. The virus is already widespread across the country, and without aggressive intervention, hospitals will be overwhelmed,” said Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist at Jahangirnagar University.
“August could see at least three times as many cases as July, with numbers potentially peaking in September.”
Health officials are urging people to use mosquito repellents, sleep under nets, and eliminate stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.
“We need coordinated spraying and community clean-up drives, especially in high-risk zones,” Bashar said.
Experts say climate change, along with warm, humid weather and intermittent rain, has created ideal breeding conditions for Aedes mosquitoes, the carriers of the dengue virus.
While Dhaka remains a major hotspot, dengue is peaking across the country. Large numbers of infections are being reported from outside the capital, adding pressure to rural health care facilities with limited capacity to treat severe cases.
Doctors warn that early medical attention is critical. Severe abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding, or extreme fatigue should prompt immediate hospital visits to reduce the risk of complications or death.
With the peak dengue season still ahead, health experts have stressed that community participation, alongside government-led mosquito control, will be critical in preventing what could become one of Bangladesh’s worst outbreaks in years. The deadliest year on record was 2023, with 1,705 deaths and more than 321,000 infections reported.


Russian strikes kill 1 as US and Ukraine officials wrap up third day of diplomatic talks

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Russian strikes kill 1 as US and Ukraine officials wrap up third day of diplomatic talks

KYIV: Russian missile and drone attacks overnight into Sunday killed at least one person in Ukraine, after US and Ukrainian officials wrapped up a third day of talks aimed at ending the war.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The latest round of attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday evening he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Speaking Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, US President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg is due to leave his post in January and was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy. In comments published Sunday by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, he said the strategy was “encouraging.”
“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said.
The document released Friday by the White House makes clear that the US wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core US interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”