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secondary healthcare facilities to build public trust. “Right now, people feel they don’t get proper care there, so they rush to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. But Dhaka Medical cannot take everyone. Overcrowding makes proper clinical care almost impossible.”

The health expert emphasised that decentralising both clinical and diagnostic services is urgent. “People should have access to dengue tests at little or no cost. This will reduce the burden of patients on major hospitals.”

Prof Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist at Jahangirnagar University, said, “Dengue comes in waves. When mosquito density is high, it becomes very difficult to stop the spread of dengue. Our forecasting model shows that cases will peak in October, start to decline in November, but continue significantly until January.”

He stressed that while city corporations must intensify source reduction, breeding-site management, hotspot control, and other measures, everyone must also work from their own position.