Surge in dengue cases across Bangladesh worries docs

Bangladesh is struggling to tamp down a surge in dengue cases as climate change turns the disease into a year-round crisis, leaving some paediatric wards packed with children squeezed two to a bed.

The Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue - identifiable by its black and white striped legs - breeds in stagnant pools, and cases once slowed after the monsoon rains faded.

"Normally, around this time, we would expect the flow of patients to ebb," said Dr Fazlul Haque, walking through a ward crowded with dengue patients at Dhaka's Shaheed Sohrawardi Medical College.

"For the last three weeks, the number of dengue cases has been increasing."