Dengue patients treated alongside highly contagious measles cases at Suhrawardy Hospital

Dengue patients are being treated in wards next to those housing measles patients at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, raising concerns among public health experts about the risk of infection.

Experts warn that measles is highly contagious and could easily spread to other patients, particularly children, if the two groups are kept close together.

Hospital authorities said they were forced to accommodate patients this way due to overcrowding.

From January 1 to August 16, 1,890 dengue patients were admitted to the hospital, with 1,639 discharged after treatment and three deaths. Another 244 patients were still undergoing treatment, despite the hospital having only 140 beds designated for dengue patients.

During a visit on Sunday, dengue wards for male and female patients were found on the fourth floor, with a measles ward located next to them. The hospital was also treating 77 patients with measles or measles-like symptoms.

Public health expert Mushtaq Hossain, a former chief scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said measles patients should be kept as far away from dengue patients as possible because the virus spreads rapidly.

Hospital Acting Director Nanda Dulal Saha said the overcrowding had left them with no alternative.

“We have so many patients that we have been forced to keep them this way. We cannot turn patients away,” he said.

Saha also suggested that mosquito nets used by dengue patients provided some protection against measles transmission. Hossain, however, rejected the explanation, saying mosquito nets do not protect against the measles virus.

DENV-3 dominant among dengue cases

IEDCR recently tested samples from 71 dengue patients and detected DENV-3 in 65 of them, while the remaining six were infected with DENV-2. DENV-1 and DENV-4 have not yet been detected this year.

IEDCR Director Professor Kazi Ahmed Zaki said the severity of dengue does not depend solely on the serotype. However, infection with a different serotype after a previous dengue infection can increase the risk of severe illness.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services, 70 people have died from dengue across Bangladesh this year, including 16 in August.

SKS