Expert being brought from India to control dengue: Atiqul

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam on Thursday said an expert is being brought from India to tackle the dengue situation in Bangladesh, state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency report said.

“At my invitation, dengue expert Anik Ghosh will come to Bangladesh from Kolkata on Sunday,” Atiqul told journalists at the Health Ministry here.

He was answering questions from reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting with the mayors and prominent physicians of the two city corporations of Dhaka at the conference room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at the Secretariat.

The DNCC mayor said new effective drugs would be procured to eliminate mosquitoes as soon as possible. However, there is a lack of experience in this regard, he added.

It is needed to set up a national research centre on dengue as it is not a seasonal disease and may break out any time of the year.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon, Chief Coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office Md Abul Kalam Azad, Senior Secretary of Education Ministry Md Sohorab Hossain, Secretary of the Health Service Division Md Asadul Islam and Director General of Directorate General of Health Services Prof Abul Kalam Azad.

Kamruzzaman