Dengue poses an increasingly severe threat to Bangladesh—and the world’s largest refugee camp
Dengue has long been endemic in Bangladesh, but the past two years have seen a sinister turn, and numbers may be even worse than official figures suggest. Rahat Touhid reports At the beginning of November 2024, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, 35 year old Mizanur Rahman developed a high fever. Rahman, an electrician in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, couldn’t afford to miss a single day’s work, so the next morning he set off again. That evening his fever worsened. Five days later Rahman was admitted to Sadar Hospital and was diagnosed with “Dacca fever,” otherwise known as dengue. Sadar is one of the largest government hospitals in the region, and a designated specialist dengue hospital. An entire floor is filled with patients with dengue and their families, sleeping in corridors, next to the stairs, and even in front of the toilets, wherever they can find room. “There are a lot of dengue cases every year, especially during the November to January period,” says Kamruzzaman Juwel,
