Shaheen Mollah

The number of dengue patients in the capital has begun to show an upward trend in the past two days, following a fall during the Eid vacation. According to the Director General of Health Services, 1,929 patients were infected in the last 24 hours across the country till 8:00am

Jannatul Mawa, 5, spent part of her Eid day in the children’s park of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, which has around 80 dengue patients, before returning to her hospital bed.

Some volunteers of Red Crescent are trying to bring a positive change by their participation in assisting the patients at different hospitals of capital Dhaka.

Cattle markets in Dhaka see very few buyers on the night before Eid-ul-Azha even though there are many sacrificial animals left to be sold. Traders who brought sacrificial animals to markets at Bhasantek, Kachukhet and Gabtoli are still waiting to sell them off and others are counting their losses after having to sell the cattle off at low prices.

Emon Hossain, a seventh grader, will be missing out on Eid celebrations with his family in his grandfather’s Shariyatpur house. This year, his festivities will be restricted to the hospital where he has been admitted since being diagnosed with dengue on Wednesday.

As Eid-ul-Azha draws nearer, city dwellers have begun rushing to cattle markets to buy sacrificial animals of their choice.

Sharna Akhtar, 18, who had swallowed poison, was in a critical stage when she was brought to the Mugda General Hospital last week.

Six-year-old Maliha and 11-year-old Raiyan were inseparable. The siblings would play like best friends. Maliha did not know of a world where Raiyan was not there for her.

Raiyan Sarker, 11, lost the battle against dengue at a city hospital on Friday. After burying him at a Tejgaon graveyard, his father Momin Sarker went straight back to the hospital later that night to attend to his daughter, who is suffering from the same disease.

“Do you want to kill my son?” a worried mother yelled at staffers of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in the capital. Her son, Mohammad Ali, 13, from Mohammadpur Geneva Camp, has had a 104-degree fever for the past three days.

When the country is grappling with a record number of dengue cases, different hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres face a short supply of a kit that is needed to detect the fever at the early stage.

Doctors and nurses in hospitals around the city are being overworked and resources are stretching thin due to the ongoing record dengue outbreak.

Last Sunday, when Shahjadi Akter’s five-year-old daughter began running a fever, she rushed the child to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from her Hosni Dalan house. Doctors there diagnosed her with dengue, but could not admit her due to a lack of beds.

Four-year-old Tahsin Tuba plays with a doll that her mother had given her just two weeks ago. Minutes later, she puts the doll away and starts watching cartoons.

Spices and vegetables have become significantly pricier over the last one week largely due to inundated farmlands.

On Wednesday evening, Senior Assistant Superintendent Sultana Esrat Jahan was heading home from Police Headquarters. Near the High Court area, her vehicle got stuck in a traffic jam.

Imagine a family going home for the holidays. The jovial trio -- father, mother and a five-year-old boy -- reach Sayedabad Bus Terminal on time.

As a good number of doctors, nurses and staffers of public hospitals went on leave during the three-day Eid vacation, their non-Muslim colleagues had to shoulder the extra responsibility and play a vital role in providing services to patients during the crisis period.

With a brinjal-loaded truck, driver Sabuj Mia came to the capital’s Karwan Bazar kitchen market from Tangail’s Madhupur early Sunday.

By the time Abdur Rahman and his family reached Sadarghat launch terminal it was almost 4pm. Though they have to board a launch to Barishal in the evening, the family of four decided to get there early.