Dengue crisis in Bangladesh

MOSQUITO-borne dengue fever was rarely a major problem in Bangladesh's coastal districts, but some hospitals are so full of those with the potentially deadly virus that patients are treated on the floor.

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As climate change drives erratic weather patterns, experts point to a dire lack of clean drinking water in the wider delta - where the snaking Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers reach the sea as a likely driving force for the surge.

Rakibul Islam Rajan said his two-year-old daughter keeps searching for her mother, Azmeri Mona Lisa Zareen, who died of dengue in early June in the southern region of Barisal.

"Zareen developed high fever... her blood pressure collapsed - and then she couldn't breathe," said 31-year-old Rajan.

"Our daughter keeps searching for her from one room to another".

In the worst cases, intense viral fevers trigger bleeding, internally or from the mouth and nose.

Barisal has recorded nearly half of the 7500 dengue cases across Bangladesh this year, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Five people have died there this year with dengue fever, out of 31 deaths recorded across the entire country of some 170 million people.