Dhaka, Oct. 27 -- The warning signs were there long before dengue began overwhelming hospitals. Before October was even over, more than 126,000 patients had been admitted with the Aedes mosquito-borne disease and over 380 had died.

The hospitalisation tally is the second-highest in 26 years of recorded data.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has tracked hospitalisations and deaths since 2000, but patients who never enter hospital are excluded.

In 2023, more than 300,000 people were hospitalised and 1,705 died; last year, admissions reached 101,214.

Entomologist Prof Kabirul Bashar of Jahangirnagar University's zoology department says all three rounds found more larvae than in previous years in Dhaka.

In earlier survey...