The Daily Star, 24 July 2019

Record 473 people hospitalised in a day; demand for blood spikes

Infected with dengue haemorrhagic fever, Abdur Razzak was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday.

As his platelet count was significantly low, doctors recommended an immediate platelet transfusion, and he was given the blood cells accordingly.

But the 25-year-old service holder’s condition did not improve.

About a day and a half after the transfusion, Razzak started to bleed from his nose and mouth. Doctors then told his father Mohammad Solaiman, 60, to manage more blood donors right away.

Worried, Solaiman looked everywhere for the donors to save his only son. He finally got the blood at the DMCH blood bank yesterday morning. 

In 24 hours since 8:00am on Monday, 473 new dengue cases were reported at hospitals, which is the highest for a single day, the DGHS data show.

Doctors said the common symptoms of dengue include fever, vomiting and abdominal pain. In many cases, the number of platelets, which help the body form clots to stop bleeding, come down significantly for which patients need platelet transfusion.

A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microlitre of blood, they said.