Shaheen Mollah

Every Thursday, Mohammad Ibrahim’s seven-year-old daughter Isnat Jahan Raida would call him at work in the evening and ask him to take her somewhere on the weekend.

Treatment of seriously ill dengue patients is being affected by an acute shortage of the kit needed to extract platelets from whole blood in a method that requires only a single donor.

In the corridors of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), amidst the relentless wave of patients, Shapla Biswas, a nurse and a mother to an eleven-month-old, finds herself navigating the balance between duty and motherhood.

Daulatun Nahar shudders when questions are asked about the August 21 grenade attack that forced her to adjust to a life of pain and trauma. Many nights she cannot sleep due to the physical suffering caused by splinters that live in her body in the hundreds.

Despite being of school-going age, 12-year-old Sayem and his siblings -- Siam, 8, and Sadia, 6 -- are out of school at present.

Four-year-old Roja Moni has been fighting for her life with 30 percent burns for last three days after sustaining the injuries in a massive fire at a chemical warehouse and adjacent houses in Keraniganj on August 15.

While the country’s health services are already struggling to cope with the dengue influx, other viral fevers and waterborne diseases are further aggravating the situation.

Nasima Begum, a 35-year-old mother of four, is a regular customer of Fakinni Bazar (a market for ultra poor), located along the rail tracks under Bijoy Sarani-Tejgaon Flyover.

As a doctor, she helped many patients to recover from dengue infection at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. But she herself could not beat the virus.

Although the prices of some daily commodities have decreased, middle- and low-income families are still struggling to make ends meet due to the recent hike in prices of essential grocery items such as eggs, chicken, onions, and potatoes.

Rafia, a 14-year-old girl battling dengue, finds herself caught in a distressing predicament within the healthcare system of Dhaka.

Three-year-old Omar Faruk was having seizures when his father Enamul Haque brought him to Bangladesh Shishu Hospital around 2:30pm yesterday.

Asma Begum took her five-year-old son and a 12-year-old relative, both suffering from fever, to get their NS1 and CBC tests, required to determine dengue, at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, as per doctor’s advice, on Thursday.

Around a week ago, Sub-Inspector Anwarul Islam and Assistant Sub-Inspector Haridas Roy of the capital’s Pallabi Police Station arrested a man in Adarsha Nagar on charges of selling cannabis.

When he was alive, Abdul Jabbar Hawlader, would be made an accused almost every time a political violence would take place in the capital’s Mirpur area.

With the city hospitals struggling to accommodate a growing number of dengue patients, deaths from the viral fever are increasing at a higher rate compared to the previous years.

Says waterbus capsize survivor Samiya

In absence of BNP, the Dhaka-17 by-polls scheduled for July 17, is shaping up to be a two-horse race between the ruling Awami League candidate, Muhammad A Arafat, and independent candidate Ashraful Hossain alias Hero Alom.

In a grim trend over the last few days, the number of child dengue patients has shot up in hospitals across the capital.

The drop in the price of rice and flour could not bring relief among low income people as the vegetable price is soaring.