The Divisional Director of Health for Chittagong, Dr. Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, has declared that the health department is fully prepared to protect the citizens of Chittagong from the threat of dengue. Speaking as the chair of a coordination meeting on strengthening dengue surveillance, organized by the Divisional Health Office near the Cinema Palace on Loyal Road on Tuesday morning (July 14, 2026), he highlighted that vector-borne diseases like dengue pose a major threat to public health. To combat this effectively, the government has partnered with the non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), signing a multilateral agreement alongside the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), the Health Department and the Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU). Dr. Rabbi emphasized that public awareness and active community participation are absolutely critical, revealing a concerning statistic that dengue larvae are currently being found in one out of every four households within the Chittagong City Corporation area.
The scale of the dengue outbreak has been escalating rapidly with the onset of the monsoon season. In the Chittagong Division, the number of recorded dengue patients rose from 405 in June to 485 by the second week of July. Addressing this alarming trend, Dr. Rabbi noted that under the directive of the Honorable Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, cleanliness drives are being conducted across all healthcare institutions every Saturday. He reiterated that while the government is fully committed, it cannot ensure 100% healthcare coverage alone. He urged other non-governmental organizations to follow MSF’s lead, stressing that individuals must keep their homes, workplaces, and surrounding environments clean—specifically ensuring that water does not accumulate in flower pots or water jars, which serve as breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes. He also called for massive awareness campaigns across educational institutions, mosques, temples and other places of worship, noting the pivotal role that mass media can play in dissemination.
Adding localized data to the discussion, Chittagong District Civil Surgeon Dr. Jahangir Alam shared that the number of dengue patients in Chittagong city and district combined rose from 122 in June to 164 by the second week of July. Among these cases, 61 were identified within the City Corporation area, 74 at the upazila level, and 29 were patients arriving from neighboring districts. He echoed the call for a united front involving both public sectors and NGOs like MSF to mitigate the crisis. The coordination meeting, organized in collaboration with MSF, featured keynote presentations on data, challenges, and solutions in dengue surveillance presented by MSF’s Deputy Country Chief of Health, Dr. Rezwanur Rahman, and Epidemiologist Prashanta Nath Bhowmik from the MSF Chittagong Urban Project.
The event was jointly moderated by MSF Medical Team Leader Dr. Francisco Raul De Salvador and Medical Communication Officer Dr. Fatema Ferdousi. A highly distinguished panel of healthcare leaders spoke at the seminar, including Brigadier General Mohammad Taslim Uddin, Director of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH); Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed, Director of BITID Fouzderhat; Dr. Kamrul Azad, Deputy Director of the Divisional Health Office; and Dr. Md. Ekram Hossain, Acting Director of the 250-bed Chittagong General Hospital. Other prominent attendees included Professor Dr. Md. Abdul Mottalib, General Secretary of the Private Hospital, Clinic, and Diagnostic Center Owners’ Association; Dr. Nur Mohammad, Senior Consultant at CMCH; Dr. A.S.M. Luthful Kabir, Senior Consultant (Medicine) at Chittagong General Hospital; Dr. Md. Nurul Haider, MODC of the Civil Surgeon’s Office; Mostafa Monsur Alam Khan, Director of the Islamic Foundation; Dr. Tapan Kumar Das, Medical Officer of CCC; Rinku Kumar Sharma, Assistant Director of the Hindu Religious Welfare Trust; and Dr. Md. Delwar Hossain, Health Officer of the UNICEF Chittagong Field Office.
The speakers collectively concluded that systematic cleanliness, destroying mosquito breeding habitats and the consistent use of mosquito nets could reduce dengue transmission by up to 90%, proving that public awareness remains the ultimate weapon against the disease.
