Bangladesh

Dengue deaths reach 357 as five more die and 1,366 are hospitalised

The health directorate recorded five deaths and 1,366 new admissions in 24 hours to Tuesday morning. Women make up 53.1% of this year's dengue deaths.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 20 Oct 2026, 19:20

An Aedes aegypti mosquito, the species that spreads dengue, photographed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Muhammad Mahdi Karim / Wikimedia Commons, GFDL 1.2

Five more people died of dengue and 1,366 patients were admitted to hospitals across Bangladesh in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, the Directorate General of Health Services said.

This year's dengue death toll now stands at 357, and hospitals have admitted 115,617 dengue patients since 1 January. Of them, 109,316 have recovered, the health directorate said.

Two of the latest deaths were recorded in the Dhaka North City Corporation area and Barishal division, and one in Rangpur division.

Women made up 53.1% of the 357 people who have died this year, and men 46.9%, according to the DGHS.

Dengue spreads through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes, which breed in standing water in and around homes. The health directorate has urged households to empty and cover water containers and clear stagnant water each week.

Sources & further reading

Spotted an error? Read our corrections policy

Keep reading

NEXT STORY Bangladesh

Rajshahi University sends injured student to Dhaka by air ambulance

Chesi Tripura, a microbiology student, suffered a severe head injury when a truck hit the autorickshaw she was riding near Durgapur on Monday evening.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 19:40Open this article

The campus of Rajshahi University in Bangladesh, photographed in May 2024. Tanvir Rahat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Rajshahi University sent a seriously injured student to Dhaka by air ambulance on Tuesday afternoon for specialist treatment, university officials said.

Chesi Tripura, a microbiology student of the 2021-22 batch, was riding a CNG-run autorickshaw back to campus on Monday evening when a speeding truck hit the vehicle at Durgapur in Rajshahi's Bagmara upazila. She had spent the afternoon at a classmate's home for a Durga Puja invitation.

The impact left her with a severe head injury. She was taken first to the Durgapur upazila health complex, then moved to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, and later transferred to its intensive care unit as her condition worsened.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Md Faridul Islam said doctors advised transferring her to Dhaka by air. The university arranged the air ambulance, which left around 1.30pm, and secured a bed at the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital in the capital after speaking with its director.

The university took a similar step in August, airlifting Jahedul Islam, a student of its Institute of Business Administration, to Dhaka after a stroke. He died while under treatment there.

NEXT STORY Business

New pay scale lifts salaries this month, but allowances stay at June levels

The Finance Division says allowances will be calculated on basic pay as it stood on 30 June 2026 until new rates begin in January 2028.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 19:40Open this article

A corner view of the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka, photographed in September 2022. Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Government employees will receive higher basic salaries this month under the new national pay scale, but their allowances will stay at the rates that applied on 30 June 2026, the Finance Division said in a notification on Monday.

The order covers staff at ministries, divisions, departments and agencies, as well as state-owned enterprises and autonomous institutions.

Allowances will continue to be paid as a percentage of the basic salary employees drew before the new structure took effect. The government said the change will hold until the basic salaries set in the Service (Pay and Allowances) Order 2026 come into force.

That order was issued on 19 September, a month before Monday's notification. It set the minimum basic salary at Tk 20,000 and the maximum at Tk 1,56,000.

The new scale took effect on 1 July, but the government chose to roll out the full increases in stages. Basic pay rises in three steps: from July to December this year, from January to June 2027, and from July to December 2027. Allowances under the new scale are due to start on 1 January 2028.

Employees have been entering their details in the Pay Fixation module of the government's iBAS++ budgeting system since 5 October, and the exercise was expected to finish on Tuesday. Finance Division officials said the money for the higher salaries at the end of October has already been set aside in the budget.